ID 570 
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THE 

COM PA 

HISTO 









Class lW7a_ 



Book.. 



b (o T»v 



Gopyrig'iitN°rB?) 



COKKIGHT DEPOSm 



THE STORY 



OF 



COMPANY B 

106th machine gun BATTALION 
27th division, U. S. A. 



BY 
LESLIE S. BAKER 



PUBLISHED BY THE COMPANY 
NEW YORK, 1920 




Copyright. 192(1 
Bv Leslie S. Baker 



MaV IOIB20 



©CI,A566920 



CONTENTS 



I'AKT OXEOVER HERE 
PART TWO— OVER THERE 

Cliapter I — Training and Preparation — !• rom Brest to Beauvoorde Woods 1.5 

Chapter 1 1 — Reserve and SujJport Lines 2 t 

Chapter 1 1 1 — Front Line 3"i 

C'liajiter IV — Rests — From Oudezeele to Raineheval 3fi 

Cliapter V — The Devastated Country — From Tineoiirt to the Hindenbur<i 

Line ' H 

Clia})ter \'I — Tlie Hiiidenhurg Line "Stunt". . . .Bi) Charles Deli. Doxcnes 1-3 

Clia|)ter \'II — I'ront Line Again — From Buire to I,a Sabliere Woods .51 

Chapter VIII — Open M'arfare — Tlirough St. Souplet 58 

Chajjter IX — The Armistice Signed — From \'aire to Connerre fi" 

Cha])ter X — The War at Connerre 70 

Cliapter XI — Home Again 76 

COMPANY STATISTICS S2 

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEN OF C0:MPAN V B H.5 

THE MOTHERS' AUXILIARY OF COMPANY B UXi 

ENGLISH HOSPITALS Ihi James J. L,/„ch 109 

POEMS: 

"The Viekers .303 ' B i/ Daniel G. O'Rearduii 1 1 L' 

"A Fighter" % Corp. York, J. E. F. lit 

"Villeret" Bi/ L. S. B. Wo 

"To Ceeile ' Bi/ Corp. York-, A. E. F. 1 Hi 

"Ask Any Volunteer" Bif Corp. York, A. E. F. 117 

OUR LETTER BOX 118 

ADDRESS LIST OF COMPANY B 121 

OUR 0\\'N BOOK RE\'IEW 127 



PREFACE 



SOUVENIRS of the Great War are munerous aiii<)n<4- the iiieni- 
hers of Company B. This aihUtional souvenir has heen puh- 
Hshed for the ])urp()se of e()-or(hnatin<>- all the ineuiories of our 
war exjK'i-iences and of cementing more firmly tlie many friendshij^s 
re.sultinf>' from intimate association with each other under all sorts of 
conditions. 

It is believed that these friendships are the greatest assets realized 
by us from our happy and unhappy times together. 

The help of many has. of course, been necessary to bring this book 
to a final form for publication. To George Bucher the Company is 
indebted for the illustrations of the advertisements and the cover de- 
sign. The Company further acknowledges a debt of gratitude to 
Elbert F. Morley, of Company A, who has donated the use of some of 
the cuts, as well as many valuable suggestions. 

The statements made in the relation of the actual history are pri- 
marily intended to be only such as will interest the majority of the 
Company. The book is intended, of course, to be read by men who 
will breathe their own feelings into the text of the reading-matter, 
and so derive some amount of reminiscent enjoyment as they turn its 

pages. 

Leslie S. Baker. 

Brooklyn, X. Y., February, 1920. 



PART ONE 

OVER HERE 



PART ONE 



OVER HERE 




O.AIPAXY E. lOCtli .Madiiiic Gun battalion. '27th 
Division, United States Army, liad its ()rii>'in at Camp 
Wadsworth, South Carolina, on October 17th, 1917. 
l)v means of a very simple and rather unromantic or- 
der from Hea(l(|uarters, assigning thereto a certain 

numl)er of officers, non-com's and privates. 

Companv B — on paper — had its ori<>in on that date, hut the real 
Company 1? was horn some time earlier. In fact, the spirit which 
characterized the company in all its deeds, hoth over here and over 
there, was hut a continuation of the spirit of the old First New York 
Cavalry. This regiment, the hreaking up of which many regarded as 
a calamity, included the finest military element m New York State. 
The nine months s])ent hy it on the ^lexican Border in 191 (! merely 
served to centralize the spirit of pride of organization, friendships, 
and experience in actual soldiering, and the ideals of common interest 
which everyone now realizes as being indisjjensable to the efficient 
fighting unit. The entire lOOth ^Machine Gun Battalion was com- 
posed of this material. Company B being formed from all of Troop 1^, 
l)arts of Ti-oo])s (t, it and V. and a few men from the 10th Xew York 
Infantry. 

The second calling of the National Guard to Federal service in 
July, 1917, found the First New York Cavalry (|uite intact, but with 
large numbers of new men who had enlisted since the outbreak of war. 
These new men — almost all of whom have by this time forgotten that 
they were ever "rookies" — immediately reahzed the character of the 
outfit they had joined, and conducted themselves accordingly. It is 
very easy to imagine with what pride some of their mothers chatted 
with each other about "what a lucky l)oy my .Johnny was to get in 
with such a fine bunch." or "how fortunate that Bill is able to go away 
with all his friends," or even "since my Charley has been wearing spurs 
he has scratched uj) all the furniture." and the like. 

But when the regiment mobilized at the Bliss Estate, Bay Ridge, 
Brooklyn, and the old camp became the haven to scurry back to before 
reveille should blow, — then we began dindy to realize that Ave were at 
last in the field. And then, after days and days of horse exercise, 
running from the Crescent Clul), and a grand-stand retreat, with per- 
haps a date or two in the big town afterward, we were made to 




c.Hori' Ai' n \\ i{ii)t;K 

iiii<lfrst;iii(l tlic iiatioirs iwvd U>v niachiiic gunners. The course of 
iiiaeliiue yun k'c-tures whieli followed elosely upon this ahirinin<^" in- 
fonuation, with their easy references to such uiilieard-of thi)i,t>s as 
mils, aparejo. crujjpers and tactics, were al)solute (ireek to nearly all 
of us. 'I'ry though we nii^ht. Me could not heljj helieviny that, in 
some unaccountable way. \\e had offended the powers tliat he. and 
were ahout to un(ler<><) our punishment therefor. We were told that 
machine ^yunners liad to he amon^- the brainiest men in the service, 
hut we accepted tliis statement with a knowiui)- nocL as if we knew 
full well that such talk was only to salve our consciences. 

On October 9th. 1917, however, after we had been at ]?ay Itidoe 
nine weeks, we enti-ained at Communipaw. New Jersey, bound for 
Spartanbur<i;, and the secret was there broken to us that we were i-eally 
goin<i; to become ])art of the l()(>th IMachine Gun Battalion. .Just 
why it Mas to ])e tlie l()(!th we could not. in our simplicity, for a mo- 
ment imagine, but we explained it casually to the ignorant civilians 
by the fact that e\ei-yone thought in large figures in those days, and 
doubtless the War l)epai'tment had done so. too. 

Arriving at Camp Wadsworth early on the morning of Octt)ber 
1 1th. aftei- a train ride which consisted of card playing between meals, 
we parted com])any with the deal" old hoi'ses. which we ha(L till then, 
accepted as ])art of the Troop. The horses were conducted to the 
remount station and we were marched to a dreary spot and told to 
pitch cam]). Jn the absorbing work of pitching tents, digging gutters 
and doing all kinds of policing, we were enabled foi- a time to forget 
tlie alisence of the horses. The fact that during those first few days, 
when we drilled, we did so according to cavalry formations, made it 
seem ])ossible that ])erha])s this machine gun talk might only be a l)ad 



G 




PICKET LINES AT CAM!' UI.ISS 



dream after all. Kven hmu; after we had eeased inarvellin<>' at the 
size of tlie C'diiipaiiy as it ran around the Kiit)iiieer "s eaiiij) before 
breakfast, it needed only a few eoneentrated yells of "Cavalry" to 
l)rin<i' us out of bed and into an impromptu parade. Thus, even that 
early, did we aecjuiir a taste for belief in wild rumors. 

lint, tliouj^h under a new name, the s])ii-it of the old C'avalrx' 
prevailed. "S(|uads Right," as taught in a eotton field by Sergeant 
Freeman, was taken as a matter of eourse. and mastered in that spirit. 
We even aeeepted Captain Alpers' explanations of the ditt'erent 
methods of "elearing the mask " as something whieh — like reveille — 
merely had to exist. 

During the long days of early winter, when the possibility of 
drill or retreat depended entirely upon the weather, the good old 
pyramidal tents beeame very eozy. In those days army life was 
exaetly as we had always imagined it to be. A good bed, three 
blankets, a eomforter. and pajamas were army luxuries whieh we 
took for granted. .Tum])ing out of them and dressing in the iee-eold 
tents was the worst hardshi}) of the day. We had no maehine guns 
to clean (even our rifles had been tin-ned in) , no sueh thing as English 
drill, no lu)rses to groom — though many would have been glad of the 
ehanee — no censor, nor nothing much to worry us except frequent 
details and the occasional wondering what on eartli had happened 
to that box of sweet stuff fi'om home, and if we were going to stav 
at Spartanburg for the diu'atiou of the war. 

This easy life was soon broken. On Thanksgiving E\'e we spent 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 



9 



oui- first twenty-four hours in tlie Spartanburg trenches. These 
trenches were lionie-inade. and i)resente(l two distinct dangers and 
many hardsliips. If you escaped freezing by leaving off the muffler 
that was given to you when you left home, the other danger was that 
you would allow some ])ussy-foot officer to approach your ])osition 
unobserved, and thus lose the war. We were convinced that the 
primary object of sending us into the trenches at this time was merely 
to change oin- point of view, so that we would look forward to the 
m o r r o w ( Thanksgiving 
Day) as a day in which to 
really give thanks. We 
made three more trips to 
these same trenches during 
our stay at S|)ai'tanburg. 
and these other trips were 
for forty-eight and seventy- 
two hours a])iece. so that by 
the time we were finished 
with om- series of tours we 
felt that France itself could 
present no terrors to us in 
that line. 

And then there was an- 
other occurrence about this 
time which made us realize 
that we had not been for- 
gotten. This was the issue 
of blue hat cords, and the 
order forbidding us to wear 
the yellow hat cords or 
leather puttees. This was 
the last sti-aw. Kven up to 
the last minute most of us 
had had. way down in our 
liearts. a secret idea that it 
was all a mistake, and that 
we shoidd once more be cav- 
alry. The blue hat cord. 

however, seemed to clinch the matter, and tlie yellow cord was care- 
fidly laid away to be worn when on furlough, ^^ery probably we 
should Tiot have taken the change so much to heart if we could have 
peeped into the future and glimpsed the overseas cap. Such a glimpse 
might have saddened — or horrified — us in other ways, but might have 
afforded some consolation in those hoin-s of gloom. 

Following closely upon the blue hat cord came the series of exam- 
inations prepared under the joint conspiracy of Captain Alpers and 
I.,ieutenant McLernon. dealing with oiu' lack of knowledge about 
evervthing from interior guard dutv to the color of the lininy the 




THE SUNNY SOUTH 



10 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



Sp:irtanl)iivy policemen wore in their coats. These examinations 
made us leali/.e tiiat we did not knoAv the army after all. 

W'ithonl i^ix inti' 'i"^ time to properly I'ccover from this shock, the 
heav\". clumsy and intricate Colt machine i^uns appeared on the scene. 
Our tirst slidotiny- with them, done on the miniature thousand-inch 
raui^e. was as thrilling to us. howe\er. .is would ha\ e heen an actual 
harraue. In fact, after once ha\ ini"- tired a niachine i>iin. interest in the 
iruu heyan to pick up coiisidt'rahly. 

Hut one thiiii; we could not yet enthusiastic about was the ^as 
drill. A certain numher of hours a week had to l)e dex'oted to these 
performances, and it so happened that the hours assiyned to oui' com- 
pany were usually the coldest, sd that we stood there and ti'ied to 
put on our l)orr()wed masks in less than six seconds, while our hands 

and ears were fairly freez- 
ing'. ( )ne day. liowe\er. we 
])assed through the j^' a s 
t'hamhei'. and that was 
moi'e excitin<4'. as thei'c was 
always the hope that some- 
o n e w o u I d he chump 
enough to put his mask on 
liackw ard. and s d y- e t 
,i>assed. att'oi'dim^' some ex- 
citement. — a I w a y s ])i-o- 
\ ided, of course, that you 
were not tlie one. 

Finally, in A p r i 1 . 
1918. after hours and hours 
of "Fall out, one, " we took 
our tii-st hike, to the ritie 
ranye at (i 1 a s s y Hock, 
thirty miles north of Camj) 
\\''a(isworth. This, our first 
attem])t with packs. — and 
such ])acks! — no one who 
took will ever forget. Xor 
is one i\\A to foryet. on the other hand, the pleasant two weeks spent 
at the cam]) at the foot of the mountains, with mountains to climh. 
mountain streams to hathe in, moonshinr to hunt, ])istol practice and 
tiring the j^uns, and the l)it>' feeds at the uiountaineers' houses. 

But i-hicf amon<i' the impressions made by the two weeks at the 
ranne was the day of the exliihition artilleiy creepin<^- barrage — our 
tirst experience of shell-tire. The whistle of the shells which just 
skimmed oui- heads as we sat on the reverse slope of a small hill ^ave 
us a very L>()od— almost too nood — idea of a bombardment on the 
Western front. Aftei-ward. as we walked back to camp, it was 
notii'cd that many imjjctuous indi\ iduals who had been bewailing the 




(■ \Ml' \V\l)SW()Kril 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 11 

fact that the war Moukl be tinished before we could get a chance to 
get across now found lots of other things to think and talk about. 

One night in late April, shortly after tlie artillery barrage, the 
air became very heavy with i-uniors. and we were suddenlv inarched 
back to CaniiJ Wadsworth, and told to send home our trunks and 
pack up for overseas duty. 

Dm-ing this period of waiting for further orders, the company 
received its first consignment of replacements. Forty-foui- men. direct 
from Camp Upton, brought the company up to fuHHghting strength, 
as there liad been a number of changes since the organization of the 
company. However, there was scarcely time for the new men to 
become acquainted before we moved. 

On ISIay 1st, 1!)18. the comjjany entrained in dav coaches, bound 
for some Port of Embarkation. We were very nat'urallv highly in- 
dignant at the idea of spending the night in day coaches — but" that 
was before we had traveled in the French "Honinies-10 Chevaux-8"" 
Pullmans. \Vhen we awoke the next mornuig we found ourselves 
at Cam]) Stuart, Newport News, Virginia, and. worst of ail, in 
([uarantinc. 

Tile ratiier hazy, excited week which followed gave us our fii'st 
taste of barracks life. The l)ig two-story buildings, tiie comfortable 
beds, the clean tlooi-. electric lights, handy shower baths, and, al)ove 
all, the wonderful early-May weather, were all too soon to be supei-- 
seded by exactly the opposite. 

However, thoughts of what the future held in store for us did 
not worry us at Camp Stuart. Even the pressure and confinement 
of the place, including as they did such things as a show-down in- 
spection in a blinding sandstorm, and a helter-skelter issue of equip- 
ment, were somewhat eased l)y the famous base])all game held in tlie 
company street. The Border "Veterans" were firndy vancjuishcd in 
the "Rookies" after a very enthusiastic and exciting game. Then, too, 
the many mothers, "honey-bunches" and "sweetie-pies" who ajjpeared 
on the scene to speed us on our way made of Camp Stuart a very 
pleasant memory. 

Finally all the rumors came to a head, and we embarked on the 
good ship "Antigone" on the morning of May lOth, 1918, bound east- 
M'ard — we knew not where. 




PART TWO 

OVER THERE 




MAP SH0WIN(, 

PRINCIPAL Pl-AC«5 OF INTeseST TO Co 8 
MnoBTHESN fAAnce 



CHAPTER ONE 

TRAINING AND PREPARATION 

From Brest to Beauvoorde Woods 




X ]May. 1918. a triinsathuitif voyage was regarded as un- 
eventful and uninteresting l)y the world at large if the 
eonvoy (hd not sight at least one periscope. Judged from 
this stand|)()int. our voyage on the "Antigone" was un- 
interesting, hut for most of us the entire trip at once 
presented thrills, discomforts, trials of patience, and the 
natui-al pleasures one derives from his Hrst ocean trip. To hegin 
with, for us one of the most thrilling and oft-recurring thoughts was 
that, from the moment we stepped on hoard ship, we entered the 
great wide danger-zone of the then-powerful Central Powers. I^p 
to this time we had heen in the war, of course, l)ut under no greater 
ixxlily danger than that of catching a cold from "Jump up and spread 
your arms and legs' in the morning exercises, or getting gassed in 
the gas chanil)er. Now. however, all was changed, and we hegan to 
realize that, hefoi'e we coidd return to America — if lucky — we should 
have undergone every possible danger and risk that the Hun. with 
his devilish ingenuity, could ilevise. It is not strange that these dan- 
gers should have been more than occasionally before our minds, as on 
an ocean voyage.- particularly the first, — one is apt to be thinking 
more of himself than, say, the future of democracy. 

However, with the exception of one day when the convoy sep- 
arated for target ])ractice. the days were very similar. I>ong days 
they were — made doubly so by only two meals per day. and sutt'o- 
catingly hot nights below decks. Even the English drill at 11 A. M. 
and the submarine "abandon-shi])" drills every aftei-noon did not 
break up the days sufficiently. The evenings, in particular, were very 
long. We started getting hungry the minute after the "smoking- 
lamp" was ])ut out — and most of us stayed that way. At these times, 
or "emergencies." as they were calleil, many opportunities arose for 
sampling the emergency ration of chocolate. Those fortunate enough 
to be on permanent suliiiiarine guard managed to get a midnight snack 
now and then. 

Finally, however, just as we were beginning to experience heart- 
felt pitv for the Australians, whose voyage lasted three times as long- 
as ours, came a change. One morning, in addition to the unmoved 
panorama of the other ships of the convoy, the guard spied a number 



lo 



It; THE COMPANY HISTORY 

of (k'stroyt-rs daitiiin- in fi-Diit of and around the transports. The 
ci-iiiser whicli liad i>iiai-(k-d our fonvoy up to that time seemed to take 
on the appearance of a mother lien. sti-uttin<4- alony with <>i-eat di^iiitw 
w hile hei- l)i-ood of httle eliieks, the destroyei's. was forever seamj)ei-iu<^' 
away from under her jjroteetive win_i>'s. 

The shi])s entered the l)eautiful land-loeked harhoi- of Hrest on 
tlie moi'nin<i of May 2.'ird. I)ut. exee])t for an unloacUni)' detail, we did 
not (hsemhark until May 'i-jth. remaining- at anehoi- for the inter- 
venin<>' period. 

At first our impi-essions of l^'ranee were, on the wiiole. rather 
pleasing-. Oui- first si,t>ht of the roeks. small islands and lioiithouses 
of Finistere. in addition to heiny \ery welcome, was most ^I'atifvint)'. 
The ea])tive ohservation halloon in the harl)or — the first we had seen 
— set us to speeulatin<4' as to whether he could spot any suhmarines 
from his di/zy height. And the presence of several naval hydroplane-, 
as had heen that of the desti'oyers and even the eruisei-. suddeidv 
seemed to make us realize that we. a very small unit iis an ever- 
increasing army, were heing watched over and guarded most carefullv 
Ii\' that same army. For the first time it dawned upon us that, vaiu- 
ahle as we had undouhtedly heen to Fnele Sam when in America, 
now that we wei'e safely o\erseas oui' \'alue was immeasui"ahl\- in- 
creased. 

This thought was rather sohci'ing. l^'ar fi-om making ns swell 
with our new importance in the eyes of the world, it set us to thinking 
out the hest ways and means for justifying the time, thought and 
money which had already heen spent on our development. From 
then on, more than ever hefore, it was up to ns to do all in our power 
to serve the high purpose for which we had heen chosen — it was uj) 
to us all to (jualify as good soldiei's and remain at top-notch as long 
as the war — oi- we — might last. 

With these and other confiieting thoughts heing fast crowded out 
of our minds hy many new and sti-ange sights, we a])proached the 
shore in the lighter which acted as a ferry from transport to dock. 
After we had assemhled on the (|uay, we marched \i\) the long hill 
which passes thi-ough Hrest. on our way. though we did not know it, 
to the Pontanezen Barracks, three miles inland. 

^"arious impressions \vere crowded u])on us- -the (juaint Fi'eneh 
houses with women and children leaning out from theii- windows and 
doors to wave their hands and cheer us ak)iig; the apparently total 
ai)sence of ahle-hodied male civilians: the women washing clothes hy 
heating them on the hoai'ds in a common, and dirty, wash-pool: the 
gieat numhers of goo<l-looking l<'i'ench childi'en who I'an around in 
nondescript clothing, eai'uestly hegging souvenirs, cigarettes and 
"tai)ac." and \elling "(iood-hye-ee" over and over again . . . such 
remains oui' first memory of Brest. We had not then learned that 
no Frenchman, young oi' old. man or woman, has ever heen known 
to refuse a cigarette, and almost hefore we knew it we had danger- 
oijsl\- diminished oin- own supply of smokes. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



17 



said 



Arriving- at the I'ontanezen Barracks, our sense of insigniHcance 
returned. Here, at least, was reality. The lonu-. uncomfortaiile- 
looking huildings that Xapoleon himself was rumored to have (juar- 
tered his trooi^s in presented to us the be^innin^- of a period during 
which our personal comfort depended largely ujjon our own inuenuit>\ 
Almost immediately we were made to feel the scantiness of tlie water 
supply in France. Shower-haths seemed suddenly to have become 
unheard-of luxuries, and even a canteen filled with much-hated but 
highly purified chlorinated water was not to be despised. We were 
still kept in confinement, but here, unlike Newport News, there was 
no place worth going A. W. O. L. to visit. And, as has' been 
going A. W. O. L. was not 
one of the jjraiseworthy re- 
solves that tilled our minds 
at that time. 

However, we wandered 
around the barrack-scpiare 
during the day, waiting- 
hours in line to pay exorbi- 
tant prices for delicious 
strawberries, poor choco- 
late, and fresh dates. 
^Vhen night fell there was 
nothing to do but to go to 
bed. if lying on the double- 
decked chicken coops could 
be so called. 

But we stayed at Brest onlv two nights, from the Saturday on 
which we had landed until .Monday. May "iTtb. On that day we 
nacked up and marched back through the town, under a broiling sun. 
Before we entrained in the tiny, flat-wheeled French freigh'r cars 
about which we had read so much, some of us managed, with 'the help 
of sailors, to fortify ourselves for the coming trip with bottles of wine, 
chocolate and fruits. The wine, of course, was strictly forbidden, but 
that fact seemed only to enhance its fla\-or. ^Vhen presented in con- 
trast to the cold dry rations which were to suffice each car for the 
coming thirty-six-hour ride, whie seemed the logical thing to buy: 
we had not become inured to chlorinated \\ater at that tinier 

The train was finally made up, and pulled out at about .'} V. M. 
Strict injunctions had been issued against throwing anything from 
car windows which might litter up the roadbed. After our first fifteen 
minutes of riding like cattle, the novelty wore off", and after that time 
we were never allowed to get away froili the flat wheel. 

]Many wayside stops were made, among them being a little town 
called I'louaret, which deserves bonorai)le mention in this work be- 
cause it supplied several of the good runners of the company with 
more wine. Usually at these wayside sto})s the men would jump off 
and stretch their legs, or the bolder try to engage the curious civilians 




I'UK.NCll "I'L l.I.MANS- 



18 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

in nipidly :K'(|uirc(l Frent-h. the most popular (piestioii bein<4- as to 
how many kilometres it was to Paris. The very mention of the word 
"mitrailleuse" was suffieieut to hrin^- to their faces a sad smile that 
was far from eomfortiu"^-. At that time, it will be remembered, the 
German advance on the Somme had not been stopped, and the ma- 
chine gunners were doing the most work toward holding the enemy 
l)ack. Hence the sorrowful "Adieu" which often accompanied a kiss- 
ing of the finger-ti])s in our direction. 

As we headed northeast, bound we knew not where, we made 
several stops for hot coffee. At such places we met our first English 
Tommies. The stories related by these men were, to say the least, 
discpiieting, although at that time our immediate concern was how 
much longei- the fool train was going to go lumbering along with its 
human baggage. However, such remarks as "We cawn't 'old Mm." 
or "Jerry comes over in droves," or "We gave 'im a wallop, Sam — 
you go in and finish 'im," could not help but make an impression. As 
we returned to the cars o!) these occasions we would sip more Mine — 
as long as it lasted. 

Ajid who can forget that Hrst night on the train, with its criss- 
crossing of legs, arms and bodies on the cold floor of the ears, with 
the flat wheels j)ounding you until it seemed as if they would lift you 
clear of the floor! \o lights were jiermitted, and in om- excess of 
caution, even under the benches cigarettes were kept shaded. 

With the coming of dawn our spirits improved, as was only 
natural. Even the ins])iring breakfast of cold canned beans, caimed 
stewed tomatoes, and corned willie — to which we had been properly 
introduced while at Brest — tasted good to us after such a night. The 
long day ])assed for us somehow, as unfailingly as manv such davs 
to come were to pass. Men took tin-ns sleeping on the packs, sitting 
in the doorways to watch the hindscape slide by, and even lying on 
the car roofs. The country we were jjassing through was a succession 
of intensely culti\'ated fields, (piaint towns whose names meant nothing 
to us, and inniimci-ai)le crossings, each manned by a P^renchwoman 
as flagman. 

Past midnight of the secojid night, and during a temporary halt 
of the train, we coidd hear the faraway rumble of the big guns, often 
described as distant thunder ... it was whispered that we were 
near Amiens . . . lidine and mother had never seemed so far away 
until that one awesome minute. The train rolled on. 

At about eleven o'clock the next morning. May 29th, after much 
bumping and jerking of couplings, the train finally came to a halt at 
a ])lace called Xoyelles. Though we did not realize it. this town was 
situated almost at the mouth of the much-talked-al)out Somme River. 
As we tugged our packs ofi' the cars and fell in we must have ])re- 
.sented a soi-ry spectacle of dirty, unshaven, tired and haggard men. 
We ate our cold lunch at the station without much enthusiasm. 

Our barrack i)ags, which had remained invisible until then, now 
put in an appearance, and we were noiiclialantly oi-dei-ed to take from 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 19 

them all our helon^in^s we needed for the rest of the war, as there 
was no telling when we should see them again. Thus overburdened 
we proceeded to the other side of the small town, where there was a 
Bntisli rest cam]). Here we washed, shaved, rested, and partook of 
some very delicious tea— made onlv as the English can make it— and 
our first hardtack. 

It was a very hot day, we were not in the best of condition, and 
consequently the comparatively short hike which followed this brief 
rest at the P^nglish camp tired us more than it should have. Our 
packs, with their l)undles of extras, were enormous, and at that time 
we had not learned to roll a pack efficientlv. Consequentlv. when we 
reached another British camp just outside of Nouvion. distant about 
five kilometres from Xoyelles. we were about ready to drop. 

We spent the nigiit in the British conical tents, and it was re- 
vealed to us that we had a seven-mile hike before us on tlie morrow. 
During the night an air raid, wath nmch flashing of guns and bursting 
anti-aircraft shells — but no results — took ])lace almost immediatelv 
over our heads. 

The "seven-mile hike" the next dav— which, bv the way. was 
Decoration Day, Mny .-JOth- was the worst torture we had" expe- 
rienced up to that time. The sun beat down on us all the time— there 
was no shade to speak of — and our tremendous packs were so heavy 
that they gave us sore feet. This was the hike which bent— but did 
not break— the back of one of the men at the rear of the cohiiiin. This 
])oor fellow's back remained at an angle which made him look as if he 
were going to jump at any minute until we reached Oudezeele, mouths 
later, when it was finally ironed out fiat again bv the Medical Corps,— 
an insi)iring sight. On the march Sir Douglas Haig's automobile passed 
us, halted, and Sir Douglas himself took a look at the men who from 
that time on were to be a part of his own army. We were almost too 
tired to button up our blouses and collars, as we knew right well that 
he would congratulate :Maj()r Bryant anyway. We did not know 
whither we were bound, and according to our prejudiced estunates 
at least ten miles had l)een covered before we reached Rue, and were 
assigned to billets. 

Rue was a good town. ^Nlajor Bryant called the company to- 
gether and gave us a short talk, announcing that our month of 
quarantine had come to an end, cautioning us to bear in mind the 
good name of the battalion in our Ciiture conduct, and giving us lots 
of other good advice. ^ 

During the first week at Rue tiie cost of chami)agne, '1)iftek" 
and chips, and all kinds of wine used up what money we had left. 
]Many of us ran up no small accounts with the money-loving trades- 
people, which were subsecpiently paid. A franc was so much smaller 
than a dollar, and could be spent so much easier, that the dollar, by 
its effacement, seemed also to dwindle in importance. 

The company remained at Rue almost three weeks, and durino- 
that time several important occurrences took place. First, the trans^ 



fi 




37 - Rue 



V- 



rCit^ !i H n K IS 





iUTiHie etlii«ii 



port was (irgaiiized. liiuhtTs and mules issued, and aiTauyenients made 
for the permaneuee of the organization. Seeondiy, oui- ^as masks and 
steel helmets were issued. Thirdly, we drew oui- allotment of ^'iekers 
maehine ^uns. althoun'h we did not then know anythin<>' ahout them. 
Fourthly, we took [)art in the first I'eview of the 'JTth Division in 
France. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and Major General 
O'Ryan re\ iewed tiie division on June 18th. The rexiew will he 
rememhered hv those who participated in it chiefly hy the numhers 
of low-flying aeroplanes which swooped down almost to the heads of 
the marchers. 

After the review, it hegan to dawn upon us that we were to he 
brigaded with the British Army, though just how far we should go 
toward becoming British soldiers, or how much our viewpoints would 
be affected thereby, or even how long we would remain with them, it 
was not in our power to imagine. 

Before we left Hue the barrack l)ags appeared once more. We 
revised our selection of cciuipment, leaving the unnecessary but still 
valuable personal ai-ticles in the bags. We were to see the self-same 
bags again after many months, but the much-xalued personal articles 
vanished forc\ei' into the ])ockets of some thieves at the base ports. 
Whose faidt it was that our property was not taken care of for us 
during the months of oui- wanderings through France was never de- 
termined, l)ut all efl'orts to secure either the property or the culprits 
always jn'oved futile. 

We proceeded to Watiehurt, a small, anti-modei-n town across 
the Somme, on June 18th. Here we spent an enjoyable two weeks. 
Every day we would march to the beach of the Somme, a distance of 



•20 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 21 

al)()iit six kilometres, to he iiisti-iicted in tlie A'ickers ^iiii. to fii-e it, or 
to he practised in I. A. and elementary drill. Many an hour was 
sj)eiit at this spot, until after a week we could hegin to tell the dif- 
t'eience hetween such thin^^s as tumhler axis pins and side lever hush 
axis split keeper ])ins, and rememher to screw down the head of the 
"milled "ead "andles" hefore we chucked the gun around. Fusee 
springs and canneiui-e packing ceased to he mysteries to us. xAll the 
instruction was given under tiie suj)ervision of Lance-Corporal Taylor 
of the liritish Machine (iun Corps. Our new rolling kitchen followed 
lis each day, and luncli was served at the range, the limhers carrying 
the guns hack to ^Vatiehln■t for us each afternoon. At the Knglish 
rest camp near the range tlie hattalion hasehall team easily gained a 
victory over a team from the KXJtii Infantry. Sunday visits to 
Cayeux. a tcnvn of some size on the Knglish Channel, for a hath or 
a swim, hecame very ]jo])ular. This was made ])()ssihle hy the results 
of an infornial reception held in his liillct l)y I>ieutenant Badenhausen. 
entitled "He comes out smiling. 

One afternoon we marched to a field near Ault. a city farther 
sontli (in the coast, to recei\e a gas denionsti'ation. As it did not get 
(lai"k at that time until ten o'clock, we had to wait and amuse our- 
selves hy watching se\eral scared meadow lai'ks. The demonstration 
of the gas attack was thi'illing and very realistic. In front of us a 
shoi't trench had hceii dug and e(|uipped with Sti'omlios hoi'us. I'attles, 
hells, and other gas alarms. The men gathered to witness the demon- 
stration, numi)ei-ing o\ er two thousand, were gi-ouped a short distance 
hack of the ti-ench. After an instiucti\e speech hy the British officer 
in commaTid of the pi-oceedings, and j)roniptly at zero houi-, the gas 
attack hegan. Wind and weather conditions were i)erfect, and the 
clouds of smoke with which the deadly gas was su])])osed to ha\e heen 
cliarged followed immediately after the ex])losion of homhs. hand- 
grenades, firecrackers, and whatever else they had that would make 
a noise. Yereylights were shot u]). Sti'omhos horns hlcw and held 
their thin, wailing note, while all the other instruments to create a 
disturhance were turned loose. 3Ien who had easily put on their gas 
masks in less time than six seconds in pi-actice seemed to take at least 
two minutes to get them on right and adjusted ])ro])erly. The effect 
jiroduced was thrilling and exciting. 

After the smoke of the cloud gas attack had cleared away, we 
were given two otiier demonstrations, the first heing real ])oisonous 
gas hlown ovei- to us. The second was a reproduction of a "Prf)- 
jector" attack. Dummy ])rojectors, filled with water instead of li(|uid 
gas. were fired from mortal's hehind us. landing in front of the trench 
and exploding with a dull significant plop. It was long ])ast mid- 
night when we returned to our hillets. 

On July -ivd we marched to Xoyelles once mf)i'e. and there 
hoarded a train headed north. It was whispered that we were hound 
for "the hloodv road to Ypres." The train had passed thi-ough 
Kta])les and Boulogne when night fell. After another uncomfortahle 



22 THK COMPANY HISTORY 

ui^'lit on tile train, and just as dawn was hrcakin^' on tlic l'"ourtli of 
July, we were routed out and formed ourselves at ^Vizerne.s, but would 
not have been any nioi-e eidi<ihtened as to where we were had we been 
told it was ^"la(liv()stok. ^^'^i/,ernes was. however, we found later, but 
a short distance from St. Omer. We plodded alon<>- in the early 
mornino-. skirting- St. Omer. and tinally halted in C'lairmarais Forest 
at about !»:.'}() A. M.. when we ate breakfast. 

xVfter breakfast we moved farther into the woods, and pitehed 
eamp. Revetments had alieady been eonstrueted l)y the English 
before us. and we ])re])are(l to enjoy the expected two-day stay. 

The next day, after washiuLf, which from then on became even 
more of a luxury than before. Lieutenant Hadenhauseii ^ave us our 
first insti'uctions on the proper methods of packing and unpacking 
limbers. The comjjany then commenced tilling all the belt.s, and in 
the midst of this woi-k we i-eceived orders to pack up and l)c ready to 
mo\e forward in fifteen miimtes. 'I'his banished our two days' rest. 

We started hiking in the late afternoon, passing through the 
Clairmarais Forest, and (loul)ling back senselessly on our tracks as 
if we were trving to fool some pursuer. After a long hike, which 
was noted for its two long rests, during one of which sevei-al "])ar" 
games wci-e commenced, we ai-rived at a llat open field in the vicinity 
of liuvsschem'e. The chief thing that made this otherwise ordinary 
tield worth remembering was an interesting French aeroplane in one 
corner of it. 

We had as good a sleep as was possible in tents pitched at night, 
and awoke in the rain. The weather cleared, however, and wc rolled 
our packs and loafed ai'ound all morning. lea\ing just after lunch. 

We reached Zermezcele late in the afternoon, after I'ollowing our 
guide. Hank AValker, for miles. Hank was mounted, and it evidently 
did not seem to be "much faithei-"' to him. but to us the hike was 
interminable. AVe pitched our pup tents in a tield alongside a farm 
house, which deserves honorable mention for having a good pump, 
with the best and coldest water we had tasted till then. 

Several of the moi-e adventiu'ous spirits tried to sneak up to the 
line that night on some English lorries that passed through, but they 
did not succeed in their undertaking. 

We prepared om-selves for a big sleep. The word was passed 
for eight o'clock breakfast and no reveille, the next day being Sunday, 
but before we got to slee]) the order was changed to five o'clock 
reveille. AVe were to be rushed to a certain town (Cassel) to pass 
through before nine o'clock, and rush we certainly did. 

We s])ent the hot, (juiet Sunday morning climl)ing up the long- 
hill leading over and through Cassel. but instead of stopping there 
and refi'cshing ourselves in the alluring estaminets. we kejjt right on 
<>()in<)' at full tilt, ovei- the hill, and straight on down the wide Belgian- 
blocked road which led to I'operinghe, and, further on. to Ypres. 
It surelv was one hot (la\-. and what made things worse was the fact 
that wc did not liaxc au\- idea how mucli longer we were going to keel) 



thp: company history 



23 



on, and the seeiuingly luuulreds of empty lorries whieh passed us did 
not eheer us up any. It really did seem to us as if a few of them 
could have been commandeered to carry some of our very heavy packs, 
instead of blindly keeping- to tlie traditions of the American army and 
hiking' every place with full packs. 

There was an element of excitement in tliis hike, however, because 
we could see the camouflage screens on the side of the road, and ideal- 
ized that at least we were Hearing the front. Not only that, hut, be- 
fore we passed through Steenvoorde, we were split up into platoon 
formation. We were later on tf) learn why this was done. 

We finally stopjied kicking up dust in each other's eyes at lieaii- 
voorde Woods. Some knowing mortal had nicknamed this bunch of 
trees growing amid filth "Dirty Bucket Woods," and it certainly was 
both dirty and wet. ^Ve had to clear away most of the underbrush 
to pitch our pup tents, but, after that had been accomplished, we set 
about policing and cleaning up the woods, which presented the ap- 
pearance of having been a first-class rendezvous for tramjis. bottle 
mamd'acturers and wholesale canners. The numbers of unused 
French "7.5" shells lying around loose in the woods sufficed to give 
us a clew to the identity of oin- jjredeccssors. 

We expected to l)e moved forwai'd again the next day, but the 
Tommies cheered us up by telling us that the front line was only eight 
kilos ahead of us, and so we realized that a long hike was out of the 
question, uidess we wandered north and south along the front look- 
ing for a suitable opening. We were unofficially informed, however, 
that Beauvoorde \Voods was to be our base, and we remained there 
from July 7th until July Kith. Captain liousfield and the others who 
had preceded us to attend machine gun school rejoined us at that time. 




CHAPTER TWO 

RESERVE AND SlPl'ORT LINES 




IL^H stay at Ik'auxooi-de Woods, liowevcr. was anything 
l)iit uiic'\ eiittiil. At ahout niidiiiglit of tlic second nio'ht, 
after most of the men had staggered and groped their 
way haek to tlieir respective tents throngh "ho-eoo ' 
mnd, the first "Steem ooi-de Kxpi'ess" went hy. A 
mnffled l)oom was all that annonnced its approacli. 
'I'his hoom was mnch londei- and yet sounded farthei' away than tlie 
accustomed smaller gnus or the fi'e(|nent anti-aircraft harrages. 'i'he 
niutfled hoom was followed hy a heavy silence, which, in turn, was 
hroken hy a higli-pitched. siren-hke wail. We had heard lots of de- 
sci'iptions of the sounds of shells passing overhead, hut not until that 
night, in the stillness of the woods, did we get a vi\ id idea of their 
terrifying effect. Luckily, there was a cond'orting short interval 
hetween the sci'cech of the shell and the loud ex|)losion which seemed 
to shake trees, gi-ound, and pup tents at once. 

Those who were awake either got up and hid or else snuggled 
closer to the ground and hoped that the next one wouldn't fall short. 
Those who wei-e asleep awoke in time to he jjresent at the hursting 
of the nert few rememhrances which Jerry threw ovei-. Some wei-e 
lucky encvigh to he so di'uggcd hy French heer that they slept through 
it all. ]\f;<st of us were just conscious enough to lie Hat on our hacks 
and try to estimate, hy the sound, just how far away they landed, and 
whether or not they were getting closer. We vaguely wondered if 
our identification tags were still around our necks, in case Jerry's 
gun had a worn harrel. 

However, day dawned, as days ha\e a hahit of doing, with just 
the memoi'y of the shelling, hut a suhway contractor should have hcen 
there to \vatch the way we dug 'A"" trenches heside each tent. Though 
many more "Steenvoorde S])ecials" ivunc o\er on sul)se(]uent nights, 
nohody in the com])any went on rccoi'd for using these trenches for 
anvthing hut throwing emitty hottles into. 

Hv far the woi'st hardship during our first stay at IV'auvoorde 
Woods was the turning in of our cam])aign liats in exchange for the 
overseas caps. We had had a sns])icion all along that we were to 
receive these very useful hut unornamental articles of clothing, hut 
the reality was far woi-se than the anticipation. Ik-fore a da}- had 
passed, we had mastered all the intricacies of the overseas caj), includ- 
ing its am|)h' protection from the heating i-ays of the sun or the i)road 



24 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 2.) 

l)riin which so effectually prevented the raui from dripping down into 
the eyes. The oidy thing that comforted us when we wore the over- 
seas caps foi' the first time was that everyone, even the officers, suf- 
fered alike. Soon we became accustomed to them, on the same prin- 
ci])le as that of a Tommy, \vho would get lonesome if he did not 
remember to shine up his bi-ass buttons each day. 

So then, on July KJtli, after we had spent all this time in 
Reauvoorde ^Voods without realizing that we were really in tlie reserve 
line, we were moved back again for a rest and additional training. 
Beyond Captain Boustield and a few others who had been up to the 
line and under continuous shell-fire, we were totally ignorant of what 
tile lines or the trenches were like. We were soon to learn. 

'J'he hike we took on .July Kith, from Beauvoorde Woods to 
Xieurlet, a distance measuring twenty-five kilos on the map, was 
universally agreed to have been the most heart-breaking and cork- 
pulling one which we ever took. Certaiidy it and its se(juel the next 
day togethei' made the worst double hike which we experienced. Jidy 
Kith, oui' anniversaiy of being mustered into Federal service in the 
National Guard, was a very hot day, and (juite a few of the men were 
forced to droj) out along the roadside from the combination of heat 
and j)hysicai sti'ain. Those in the column thought the head of the 
column never would stop, or else had lo.st their way. When finally a 
halt was made it was with a groan. l)ecause no town was in sight. We 
rested for nearly an hour, easing our tired and blisteird feet and eat- 
ing supper on the roadside. We moved on once more with our heavy 
packs. After a time it ])egan to get dusk, and it was neai-ly seven 
o'clock when we finally pulled into the one-horse town called Xieurlet. 
There were no other soldiers in the town, and in fact the town was 
scarcely large enough to conceal our battalion, but the town had one 
redeeming featiu'e. Just outside of town the gi'ound all around was 
very swampy, and the only means of travel was over bridges con- 
structed of (luck-boards. There was one small creek, however, which 
someone managed to discover, and there the company went, almost 
in a body. The water in the creek was not clean, but it was wet and 
cool, and that was all that was desired. There was a s])ring-board 
(evidently built by the British) from which to dive, and the terrors 
of the long hike were soon forgotten. 

But the town's one redeeming feature was. after all, compen- 
sated by millions of moscpiitoes which seemed to live, when we were 
not there, on the creek. When we were there, they lived on us. The 
com])any. with the exception of the transport, was billeted in a large 
two-story barn, which was cool, dry and fairly comfortable, if such 
a condition be possible with myriads of mosquitoes biting at every 
ex])osed ])lace. The continual humming and buzzing of these insects 
would have been enough to keep us awake, ordinarily, but the night 
of July Kith was no ordinary night. 

Sliortly after midnight the humming of the mos(juitoes gave way 
to a more distinct hunmiing — the droning, rising-and-falling sound of 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



NIEURLET 

I've seen my share of action, yes, it has its own attraction, 
And I've hiked tlie roads of France both night and day. 

Hut to nie tlie meanest feeling — oil. it sets my brain 
a-reeling — 
Was when Jerry dropped bis bombs on Nienrlet. 

The line is often thrilling, with its shelling and its killing. 
And the gruesome sights one often has to see- — 

liut when you're in a billet sleeping, and through the sky 
he comes a-creeping — 
Say, believe me. Bud! That's not the place for me! 

The "archies" started bumping, and the bombs commenced 
a-crumping. 
All we coidd do was lie there on the floor. 
We could hear his engine humming — then we thought our 
time was coming — 
Cieneral Sbei'man had the (loi)c describing war! 

They say the war is finished, but my wish is undiminished. 

I want to meet that Hun some future day! 
For his bombing raid succeeded — yes. he hit some chaps we 
needed. 
On tliJii moonlight summer's night in Xieurlct. 

— Cour. YoKK. A. E. F. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 27 

a Boche aerojjlane. That he was bound our way there remained no 
doubt, and din-ing the few terrifying moments when lie could plainly 
be heard hovering' a few hundred feet in the air above our unprotected 
heads he seemed to be toying with us as a cat does a mouse which she 
knows she has in her power. Xo anti-aircraft guns were in the neigh- 
borhood, and those who finally did arrive on the scene were too late 
to keep the Hun at a sufficient height to run a chance of missing 
his mark. 

He drojiped two bombs — "small bombs, as one man in all 
seriousness referred to them, one narrowly missing the battalion trans- 
port, and the other landing just outside of the barn wherein D Com- 
pany was billeted. The bombs came whistling down through the 
air, landing with a thud, and burying themselves into the ground, 
which shook so with the force of their landing that you could almost 
feel and hear the bombs s(juirming their way down into the ground. 
Then all was painfully quiet for the short space of perhaps one-fifth 
of a second, during which time, you may be sure, we had no difficulty 
in holding our breaths in expectancy. And then it hajjpeneil — a loud, 
crunching crash — the bombs exploded almost at the same time — which 
lifted us clear of the floor on which we were slee])ing, and which 
sounded so near by that we were sure oiu- own building must i)e the 
one hit. 

Followed silence, interrupted by the sound of falling tiles off 
our roof. French civilian women and children began to scream hys- 
terically and to run about. The civilians left town as quickly as they 
could, fearing another attack, but returned after the danger was over. 
Reports came in that one man had been killed and seventeen wounded 
in D Company. Some stir was aroused by a school teacher who dis- 
plaved some lights at the windows of his schoolhouse across the street, 
on the pretext of examining his glass to see if it was still intact. He 
was ordered to keep his lights out, and to that end a guard was put 
on for the remainder of the night. 

Some two hours later a heavy thunderstorm fell, completely 
drenching the hapless men of U Company, whose house had been 
S])lintere(l from under them, so that, wlien morning came, they pre- 
sented a sorry sjjcctacle indeed. The Nieurlet air raid was the finest 
exhibition of German spy work that we witnessed, for we had only 
been in the town for five hours when the raid occurred, and pi-eviously 
the town had never been occupied by ti-oops. Then, too, the orders 
of the evening before had been changed at the last moment, so that 
we could sto]) at Xieurlet instead of moving on farther, as had been 
planned. So that, unless there was some mode of j)rearranged signal, 
Jerry could not have known what town, and especially what buildings, 
to aim for. 

AVe were to start hiking again the next morning at eleven o'clock, 
and before that time some of us managed to get in another swim. If 
anything, this day was hotter than the one before, in which we had 
hiked twentv-tive kilometres. We had no idea how far we were to go, 



I'S TIIK CO.MrAXV HISTORY 

nor ill wliat direction. T) Coiiipnuy. on account of its misfortune, 
was transported to the destination in lorries, and the hike was so stiff 
that some of us even began to wish that we had l)een bombarded, 
it for that reason we wouhl liave been privile<^ed to ride. And then, 
we ar<»ued with oursehes. if it were so easy to obtain a few lorries 
for 1) Company, why not obtain a few more and transport the whole 
l)attaIion^ Hiit, of course, one must not expect a man to look at 
things reasonal)ly and with an unbiased viewjxiint when he is trudging 
alony fifty minutes without a break, with a heavy pack which burns 
in several uiithou_L>ht-of places, with feet tliat have lar<^e blisters all 
broken open on them, and unable to take ofi' and carry his blouse 
without violation of orders. And then there was the consoliny thou<>ht 
that for every step we took in the direction we were travelin<>- we 
would have to retrace it in our next trij) to the front, which could not 
be farther off than a week. 

As a matter of fact, it was just a week. We arrived at Quelmes 
on the afternoon of July 17th. and left there again to go forward 
July 2-fth. Quelmes was a dirty town, as were most of the towns we 
were billeted in. For billets in Quelmes we had several small barns, 
which, after sleeping in them one night, made palaces out of ])up 
tents. Those whom the smell did not affect were subsecjuently driven 
out of the barns by the rats. Every morning we would march to a 
machine gun range near Lumbres. where we had a solid week of verv 
interesting tiring, at varied ranges, including competitions and prac- 
tice in actual gun drill. Near Quelmes. it will be remembered, was 
a still smaller town called Set(|ues. which was kind enough to have 
a clear cold ri\ er running through it, across which huge trees had been 
conveniently felled, so that, after a dusty march to and from the 
range, sundown could have brought no finer celebration than a swim 
in such a place. The chief outstanding memories of Quelmes are: a 
farmhouse where a woman would cook as many eggs as you wanted, 
and thought nothing of selling hundreds of eggs every night: a num- 
ber of aeroplane hangars which attracted a great deal ol' interest: and 
a heavy thunder shower which caught us unprejjared on the Saturday 
before w'e left. The storm was interesting, as we were on the range 
at the time, and it came up so rapidly that, even before we could get 
the guns dismounted and jjut away, everything was drenched. Strange 
to say. as we marched home in the rain, with the water oozing out of 
our shoes. v\e sang all the way \\ith a fexerish energy. Seldom iiad we 
felt so hap])y or carefree — we were wet. we could get no wetter, so 
there was nothing at all to worry us. 

Sunday j)asses were given out I'or St. Omer. the largest town 
remaining inhabited near the lines. St. Omer had a beautiful cathe- 
dral, and lots of beautiful restaurants which \\ere e\"idently supported 
by, advertised by, and the property of ■■Officers ()nly." 

July 24th Found us hiking along in the cooling rain back the way 
we had come to Lederzeele. where we spent the night in a large barn 
tilled with drv straw, which did not lune too much odor. The next 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 29 

(lay we moved forward once more, and finally arrived at our old 
stamping grounds, Beauvoorde Woods. 

On this, our second appearance at Beauvoorde Woods, our opin- 
ion of the woods, we found, had changed somewhat. Instead of re- 
garding it as merely a sto})ping-point in our jom'uey to the front line, 
we realized that it was our hase from which we would move forward 
in detachments. Moreover, the woods themselves were considerahly 
cleaner, due to the fact that nol)ody had occupied them during our 
ahsence. We pitched our pup tents on the more open ground which 
had previously heen used by A Company, and proceeded to make 
use of our knowledge of the best jdaces in the neighborhood to get 
eggs, chocolate and vin blanc. We felt, more or less, that we were 
"home" again, and the sight of the familiar observation balloon which 
was mooi'ed at one edge of the woods sei'ved to increase this feeling. 

Suddenly, however, one evening, at about one jioiu's notice, one- 
half the company was ordei'ed to mo\e foi'ward \vith the guns, to 
occupy positions in the Kast Poperinghe Line, which was the support 
line to the front system. In the woods we had been held in reserve, 
and it was not until that time that we learned about the formation 
of the trench system of fighting which had been developed by the 
British during their four long years of it. 

In front, and within direct fire of the enemy, was the front line 
system, occujjied by the infantry, Lewis gunners, and machine gun- 
ners, with the light field artillery directly behind. Then, a few kilo- 
metres to the I'ear was the support line, which included the heavy 
artillery. ()-inch. D-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch guns which were tired 
at long ranges, searching out the enemy's heavy artillery in similar 
relation to their front line system. Behind this was the third line, 
which was comj)aratively safe as far as personal safety was concerned, 
and in which everybody was held in reserve for immediate movement 
to either the support or the front lines, should either become necessary. 

At Beauvoorde Wofxls. then, we were in the reserve, or third 
line. When we moved up to the Kast Poj)eringhe Line we were in 
the suppoit line, out of range of the enemy with our short-range ma- 
chine guns, and only able to sit still and be fired at by the enemy's 
guns without chance of retaliation except indirectly through the 
British heavy artillery. The gun positions were only used at night, 
and were kept camouflaged or screened from aero])lane observation 
during the day. At nearly all the positions there were deserted 
shanties to sleep in or keep dry. At one oi- two there were concrete 
"])ill-boxes," which had been constructed by the "H. K.'s" — the British 
engineers, and one position boasted of a cond'ortable dug-out. Those 
living in the dug-out were more or less safe from shell-tire, as were 
those who had a pill-box to jump into shoidd the shelling l)ecome too 
heavv, but the ones living in tlie shanties didn't know, one-half the 
time, whether the blinding flashes and tremendous explosions all 
around them were from our own guns or explosions from the Jeny 



30 THE COMPANY HISTOHV 

shells, — that is, until they s^ot used to the differeiiee in the sounds, 
whieh was not very long. 

A gas guard had to he maintained at eaeh position, as eaeh was 
isolated from the other, and daylight eommunieation hetween them 
was only made at the risk of heing ohserved hy Jerry's lialloons. Then, 
too, eaeh shanty was oeeupied hy the Hi-itish engineers, who would go 
out after dark and do their work on dugouts, saps, wires, ete., during 
the night and then spend their days indoors, either sleeping or else 
making souvenirs to earry home with them on their next leave. This 
was our first intimate eontaet with the Hritisli, and they did not lose 
any op])ortunities of entertaining us with vivid stories t)f the dangers 
of the line. In spite of these, their efforts to get our "wind up," as 
they said, the Tommies were very eomforting, as they knew a lot of 
trieks of the game and we should have heen a great deal more "windy" 
when the shelling heeame heavier for a few minutes than we would 
have if they had not treated the matter with comparative indifference. 
We learned then that the chief reason the Tommies were indifferent 
in the support line was heeause they were so "fed up" with four years 
of war that they didn't seem to really care whether this particular 
shanty was hlown to smithereens or not. ^Ve wondered if we should 
ever l)ecome that calloused — and douhted it. 

Our re\elations as to the nature of the line, derived from our 
exj)eriences of it in the East Pop. Line, were, to say the least, unusual. 
Instead of the horrihle devastation which we had expected, we lived in 
hlooming fields of potatoes and peas. Beyond a few shell holes — 
very large ones, too — there was no visible sign that a war was going on 
all around us. There were no guns to he seen in the daytime and the 
only sign of life was an occasional Tommy braving observation by 
walking around. It was a very easy matter to sneak out and dig up 
some potatoes to be fried, although that was I'orbidden. Each gun 
team was sutficient unto itself, doing its own cooking or heating the 
rations brought up at night. 

The oidy annoying things about the East I'op. Line were the 
nights. After dark the camouflage from each gun position was cleared 
away and the guns kept mounted in rea<liness to re])el any successful 
attack by Jerry. Each was given its own field of fire, should it be- 
come necessary, together with the propei- ranges to commence firing 
at, so that we began to feel fairly important — until the guns opened 
up, and then we forgot our importance at once. The big guns on both 
sides .seemed to save up their shells during the day and then let locse 
at night, their firing being based, no doubt, ui)on balloon and aero])lane 
observations gained during the day. While \vc had the comforting- 
knowledge that Jerry was not considering us of enough importance 
to waste his big shells on us, the very fact that he was continually 
searching out the big guns scattered in positions all around us did not 
make us feel any better about it, as there was always the chance of his 
accidentally missing his aim and hitting us instead. 

After seventy-two hours' occupation of these positions the other 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



31 



half of the company was moved forwanl and relieved the first half for 
another seventy-two hours, while the first hatch went hack to Beau- 
voorde Woods and slept. The first hunch then in turn relieved the 
second for forty-eight houi-s, when the company asseml)led at Beau- 
voorde Woods a<i;-ain. 

It was durinfj- this last forty-eight hours that the most interesting- 
occurrences took place, consisting of a low-flying German aeroplane 
heing chased right over one of our positions and a halloon hei""' 
hrought down hy another ])lane. 



ino' 




CHAPTER THREE 

FRONT LINE 



'/ met with Death in lii.\ CDUiitri/, 
II ith Ins scifttir (tud his lutlltnc ct/t', 
li'iilkiiii/ thr niatis of liclf/ium. 
I loiikrd, and hr passi'il iiir In/. 

Since he passed me hi/ in I'liuj Street, 
In the u-oods of the evil name, 
I shall not tunc lie with the heroes, 
I shall not share their fame. 

I shall never be as thei/ are, 
A name in the lands of the free. 
Since I looked on Death in Flanders, 
And he did not look at me." 

LoRU DtXSANV. 



OX Auo-iist -Jiid, lUlS. at about midday, tlie i-utire company moved 
f()i-wai-(l from Heauvoorde Wood.s, rcstiiif^- finally just outside 
of a battered \ illa,<>e called Godewaersvelde. Ivatc in the after- 
noon we were divided up by the captain into new scjuads. consisting 
of a corporal and two or three privates each, and given the numbers of 
the ])()siti()ns we were to occupy in the front line that nij^ht. In these 
new formations, then, and with liii'ht packs and without overcoats, we 
started forwai-d. just before dark, so that, by the time we were witliin 
observation, (hirkness had settled in. ^^'e kept on moving forward, 
however, smoking our last cigarettes for the march at a ])oint on the 
road decided upon l)y our otticers, and wearing our steel helmets at all 
times. Never would we have been able to believe that these same tin 
hats which felt so lai-ge and heavy on the march could j>ossibly seem 
so .'■mall and thin in tlie next few hours when we relied chiefly upon 
them to ])r()tect us against shrapnel. 

We were left in no doubt whate\er that we were appi-oaching the 
front by the increase of the flashes of big guns all around us and the 
noise from each. \\\' could easily distinguish the noises made by the 
(.ierman guns and our own. Then again, the increasing frecjuency 
of star shells. \'ereylights. and other signals which appeared from time 
t(i time iTi front of us made it seem as if we should very soon land in 
the (iernian lints if we kept u]) oin- |)resent rate. 

3i' 



thp: company history 33 

But all the thrills which we had imagined we would have in our 
first trip to the front line wei-e exceeded and inaoiiified by the reality 
of our first experience. There, a few hundred yards in front of us. 
was the center of the woi-ld. That is, almost everybody hi the wliole 
world was directly interested in and continually watchinn- the develop- 
ments of just what was before our very eyes. We felt then what an 
advantage it was to be just where we were, practically at the cynosure 
of all the eyes of the woi-jd. and actually felt sym])athy with all those 
who could never have the thrill that was ours. Petty (litt'erences were 
forgotten — everything was forgotten in the magnitude of the display 
around us, and the realization of our own insignificance in the midst 
of the tremendous deadlock of which we were at last a ])art. We felt 
ourselves a part of the culmination of the weightiest plans, inventions 
and ideas of the brainiest men in the world. Everything which counted 
in life seemed to liinge upon the successful carrying through of the 
great war game, and we were to take our places in that game, with a 
supreme chance of doing things infinitely more useful to the cause of 
right than in our own simplicity of minds we iiad any right to expect. 

After delays and hurried crossing of cross-roads where ti-affic 
was congested, and i-egulated by an ^I. P. stationed there, we marched 
over a well-remembered plank road and finally halted at a cross-roads 
which we were told was to be our stopj)ing j)lace as well as our assem- 
bly ])oint. Here we were able to stop and relax, although there was no 
relaxation, as the echoes from many machine guns could plainlv be 
heard and our own light artillery was firing right over our lieads. It 
was by this time cpiite dark, l)ut the darkness only sharpened oui- 
hearing and intensified our feelings, and we were illuminated from 
time to time by the rockets and star-shells which seemed to be going 
uj) right over us. 

It was at this point, while waiting here, that C'ompanv C suffered 
its first casualties, a shell landing in the midst of a small grouj) of men. 

Waiting there was very irksome, and at the same time dangerous, 
as cross-roads were favorite spots for Jerry to shell, and when the 
guides for the different ])ositions finally arrived we lost no time in 
following them. Wv i'elic\ed the machine gunners of the .j.'Jrd lirig- 
ade. At each gun position there was an Knglish corjjoral and two 
Tommies, who steadied us considerably. Some of the ])()sitions had 
dug-outs, some had convenient saps, and others merely a sheet or two 
of cori-ugated iron over a portion of the trench. Most of the guns did 
night firing, using indirect harassing fire, and then mounted their guns 
on S. O. S. lines during the day, so that, when the signal, which was 
Red-over-(xreen-ovei'- Yellow, or in some cases, three Keds. should oo 
up. the guns might open up continuous fire unmediately. Some of the 
guns might have done so in a minute or two, but others, especially 
after a night of firing in the nuid and rain, would have taken about an 
hour to be ready, and so would have been of no use whatever. 

liUckily. however, no S. O. S. signal went up dm-iiig the six days 
we spent in these positions. We learned to adajjt ourselves to the dis- 



34. THE COMPANY HISTORY 

comforts of iiiuddy trench life. The nights were not too cold; we had 
;dl day to sleej) in if we (hdn't care particularly about eatin<>-. There 
was no reveille; there were no uniform regulations. You could do as 
you pleased; you didn't even have to salute otticers. Xohody cared 
if yoiu" shoes were not cleaned or if you were not shaved: nobody 
cared how late you stayed uj) at night. It was forbidden to clean the 
guns without an otHcer's permission; the more mud you got on your- 
self the more you were camouflaged to resemble the trench. 

So, although we did not realize it at the time, our life in the front 
line was far easier than army life back at the rest camps, where thev 
had and enforced such things as reveille. taj)s, drills, inspections. K. P. 
and police details. The only things we had to worry us in the line 
were the Germans, and we could get mad at them openly, even when 
speaking to an officer. 

And then there was the rum issue, which made us tingle all over 
and warmed us up so that we slept like rocks on the damp, chilly ground. 

We were situated in that portion of the line which was just in 
front of Mount Kemmel. and the lines at this point had been in dis- 
pute for yeai-s. It was regarded as a quiet sector, but at that time the 
Jiritish feared a concentrated attack on the noi-thern ])art of tiic line 
in an attempt to break through and capture the Channel j)orts. Luck- 
ilv. several defeats suffered by the (rermans in the south had led them 
to abandon this project, and. shortly aftei- we had been I'elievcd from 
these positions. Mount Kemmel was evacuated by them. 

But the greatest hardship of the line was going out at night for 
the rations. The food was brought up. all soi-ted in liags marked for 
each jjosition. and dcj)osited at our assembly point, and one man fi'om 
eacii position was detailed to go out fi-om the position and run the 
risks of shell-fire, drowning in a shell-hole, losing his way, machine 
gun bullets, observation when a star-shell should go u]). and getting 
the food soaked when he dro})ped Hat on the ground at an exjjlosion. 
This ration trij) each night presented enough thrills for a lifetime, and 
it was a happv moment in(leed when the ])ositi<)n was finally reached 
safelv and one i-eali/ed that it would be someone elses turn the follow- 
ing night. 

The only evening of the six that was at all out of the so-called 
bnmdi-um life of the ti-enches, if such a life can pi'o])erly be termed 
humdrum, was the night of iVugust 4th. That, it will be remembered, 
was the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of war in 101 -f, and the 
Tommies told us there was going to be a "bit of a strafe"" in celebration. 
'I'hei-e was. At about 1 1 P. ]M. it seemed as if every single gun of any 
calibre that had heretofore been lying quiet was given an airing, and as 
far as the eve could reach in back of us were continual flashes and loud, 
muffled reports. This contimied for about half an hour — or so it 
seemed to us — and then they quieted dow^n as suddenly as they had 
commenced. During the ])onibardment it seemed to us as if all the 
inactivity of the davs in the trenches were suddenly shaken off. and 
we felt as if it were a l<"oui-th of .July demonstration which we were 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 



35 



enjoying. But our enjoyment was not to last very long, for as soon 
as our o-uns had quieted down and resumed their mjrmal intermittent 
tiring, the (iennans had their little eelebration, and all kinds of shells 
eommenced dropping around us, the noise being just as terrific and 
the effect infinitely more terrifying tlian our homl)ardment. Ours had 
put us in such good humor, however, that we just lay low in the 
trenches and thumbed our noses at the poor fools'who were trying to 
infiict casualties among our boys. " '^ 

On the night of August Hth, after we had spent six days and 
nights m the trenches, we were relieved by the British machine gun- 
ners, and proceeded in small detachments back to Beauvoorde AV(?ods. 
It was a long trip, and we were not (juite sure what the orders were. 
or that the company headquarters— and the kitchen— would really 
be there or not. One thing mc were entirely sure of, however, and 
that was that we did not want to linger once we were relieved. Our 
march back to the woods, by twos and tlirees. on lorries, in limbers and 
on foot, was not accoi-ding to army ethics, but it was (piite a relief to 
be able to move and to walk around' with our heads erect. One platoon, 
obeying orders, waited on a road that was being shelled for over fifty 
minutes for the rest of the company, and then proceeded on its way 
without them. ^Ve were relieved at about eleven o'clock, but it was 
four in the morning, and just beginning to get light, when the last 
of the stragglers finally found where the conqjany had hidden itself 
in the woods. Those wiio had stayed behind had very thoughtfully 
])itclied enough pup-tents to house" the entire company, and the next 
day we had a wonderful time just lolling around and going back to 
sleep again. And there was plenty of mail from home waiting for 
us. so that life was indeed worth living again. 

We suffered two casualties M'hile in the trenches. Al Schmitt was 
unlucky enough to sit down on some ground which had been saturated 
with mustard gas and sufi'ered for many weeks from the burns. Clar- 
ence Eldert was wounded in the head when a shell landed on the ma- 
chine gun he was seated near. The gun was entirely destrf)yed. and 
it was only by a miracle that he was kept from being blown to i)its him- 
self. This number of casualties was ridiculously small, considering 
the number of men actually engaoed. 



'^^"H^ 




CHAPTER FOUR 

RESTS 
From Oudezeele to Raincheval 




^-^'^-^^^'— K reiiiaiiied at lieaiivoorde AVoods all (lui'ing the day of 
Aiii^iist Dth, and continued to rest there all the followiiif)- 
i)ii>ht. Tiie next morning', iVu<i'ii.st lOth. we started for the 
rear onee more. We were not in very good physical con- 
dition, hut the officers considered it unwise to proceed hack 
along the main road through Steenvoorde to Oudezeele. 
where we mci-c bound. Instead, we skirted round Steenvoorde, 
doubling on our tracks, until we met the guide. lie had a bicycle, 
and said the camp was just a little further on, so we believed him. and 
kept going for miles until we thought the guide never would stoj). 

A stojj was finally made in a. farmyard near Oude/eele. This 
farmyard was considerably more spacious than others we had seen, 
and the ])ool of water which is common in most farmyards of France 
was comparatively clean. Also, there was a good diy l)arn, with an 
undamaged roof and jjlenty of straw. As before, those who prefen-ed 
to sleep out of doors ])itche(I their pup tents alongside a reserve trench 
which had been constructed years before in the early 2>eriod of the 
war. The kitchen was placed in a shelter of a large tree in the center 
of the yard. Amid these surroundings we s])ent a very hap])y, restful 
and contented two weeks of sunshine, warm weather, late evenings, 
and a generally lazy existence, with nothing to worry us in the slightest. 
AVe had drawn our share of cooties from the trenches and the 
Tommies, so that some of the men were kept busy trying vainly to rid 
themselves of the things. The 27th Division show played at Oude- 
zeele. where division head(|uarters had been established, and the notable 
playgoers in our midst made fre(|uent trips to it. l^'resh milk was 
jjurchased daily from a Frenchwoman neai- by, and was very fine in the 
coffee, and on the oatmeal in the morning. We had ])lenty of jam in 
our Knglish rations, which attracted swarms of bees whenever we ate, 
so that to eat a slice of bread with jam spread on it re(|uired no little 
dancing ability. There were several com])etitions of gun drill, for 
speed and accuracy, and an individual comj)any test for ])roticiency 
in L A. (Immediate Action in remedying a stoppage when firing the 
gun). Several of the men got week-end ])asses to I)unker(|ue, and 
a few went to Calais, and had to walk all night so as to get l)ack in 
time for Mondav re\eille. Thev returned telling of such wonderful 



m 



THE COMPANY inSTORY 37 

mai'vels as real street ears, iee ereaiii, and beds with slieets on them 
Hut the most noteworthy oeciu'rence at Oiule/eele was the "ironing- 
out proeess administered to one of our number who was built so elose 
to the ground that he appeared to walk along in search of a dropped 
coin. The medieal corps, who officiated at the ceremony, were most 
lieartless, and paid no heed to the screams of anguish from the writh- 
ing victim as he was pressed out flat. Their efforts, however, were 
justified, as from that time forth our Victor walked u])right. His 
nerves, though, were badly shaken, and for a few succeeding nights 
he became subject to horrible nightmares. 

When we left Oudezeele on August ifiJnd, it was to return to 
Beauvoode ^^^)ods for nine uneventful days. This time, however, we 
lived in British conical tents instead of pup tents. The time was spent 
by most of the boys in making souvenirs, their ideas being taken from 
those constructed by the Tommies. It seems that a Cxcrman attack 
had been antici])ated at this time, so that we were rushed into reserve, 
but the attack did not materialize, so that we did not even go up to the 
support line this trip. 

The outstanding features of this, oui- last stay in Heauvoorde 
\N'()0(ls, were more drill and I. A. competitions, and a company inter- 
scjuad athletic meet. Lord Salisbury cigarettes (very rare), soap, and 
Listerated chewing gum were obtained by the committee, and were 
awarded as prizes for each event. Also, there was a scjuad prize for 
the squad scoring the greatest number of points during the meet. 
There was some hesitation about holding the meet in the open, under 
possible enemy observation, l)ut we got away with it. 

The first event was a sixtv-vard dash, run over a soiiyv field from 
which the wheat had just been harvested. Running on a track like 
that was similar to iMiiuiing on sand. There were fifty entries, so we 
had heats, semi-finals and finals. ]\Iorton Clark won the final bv a 
bare yard from Dave Gately, with Joe Mclntyre third. Captain 
Bousfield acted as official starter, and the other officers «ere judges. 
Between the heats of the sixty-yard run was held the shot-put. "Shot- 
put" was literally true, because the only shot we could find that would 
suit was half an empty (J-inch shell casing. We had no measiu-ements, 
so we did not know how far the shot was put. but. on the othei- hand, 
we didn't know how heavy the shot was, so it did not make much dif- 
ference. Then we had a running high jump, which was won in dra- 
matic style by Harry Blythe. The running broad jumji was won by 
Bob Sime. The last event, the squad relay race, w^as won by Phil 
Corwin's squad. Joe Mdntyre's squad won the largest number of 
points, and so was awarded the S(piad prize, eight cakes of soap. 
Platoon honors — but no prize — went to the first platoon. 

We said g(HKl-bve for good to Beauvoorde Woods on August 
31st, after having camped in four different distinct spots in its dirty 
shade. We remained at a large field between Steenvoorde and Winne- 
zeele for four good days, during which time we were questioned about 
gas and its pecidiarities by the division gas officer. It will never be 



38 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

forgotten how surprised he was when we foohshly luhnitted that we 
had never worn our gas masks for four hours. Consecjuently, the very 
next day we were ordered to wear our gas masks from eight o'clock 
in the morning until noon, which we did — most of us. 

It was such a wonderful day, however, and we had wasted so mucii 
of it in this fashion, that when the Captain said, hefore dismissing us. 
"I hope that everyone will rememher he has had his gas mask on for 
four hours in case anyone should ask him." we felt like doing anything 
active. The inter-platoon spirit which had hecii fostered hy the 
athletic meet a few days before accordingly broke out anew, and an 
impromptu football game was arranged between the first and second 
jjlatoons. and was won by the second platoon with one touchdown. 
Between playing and watching the game, however, we were able to 
forget the terrible gas masks and the torture of wearing the plagued 
things for four hours without a break. The game itself clearly showed 
that a team which had no signals at all was not much worse off than 
a team which had hastily-jjrepared signals that wouldn't work without 
confusion. 

On Se])tember .jth we marched to Heidebeke. Belgium, where we 
entrained again. On this hike there were a few op])ortunities to buy 
real milk chocolate at several of the towns we passed through, and by 
the time we reached Heidebeke we had all eaten our till. This did 
not deter one enteri)rising youth, however, from buying a sup])ly of 
fiftv cakes of Chocolat ^lenier and a few cartons of American ciga- 
rettes as a ])i-()()f against ])ossible pangs of hungci-. As things turned 
out. though, lie found liimself left with all the stuff on his hands, as 
he found that nobody wanted to buy any more chocolate. 

We stayed on the train all that night, and, in the morning, before 
we reached our destination, the train moved along so slowly that we 
had lots of time to hop off and pick wild blackberries that grew along- 
side the roadbed. We detrained at a ])lace called Candas, but did not 
know where we were from that clue. Slinging oui- packs, we started 
hiking, past a (xcrman prison cam]), and on and on until we wondered 
whei'e we were going even more than we had wondered where we were. 
This hike was notable on account of its lack of shade. At only one 
point, for a few hundred yards, was there any shade at all. and it was 
a verv hot da v. The jxior voung man who had all the chocolate did 
nf)t want to throw it away, and could not gi\e it away, as that would 
have necessitated carrying it. so he strapped it on to his ])ack, and 
after we tinallv sto])i)ed managed to get his iiioikn's woi-tli of enjoy- 
ment out of what was left unmelted. 

Our hike took us into and through a wonderful wood, free from 
underbrush, with sucii tall trees that they formed a natural arch to 
screen us from the glare of the sun, which had become almost more 
than we could stand. There was a vast majority among those present 
iu favor of remaining in the wood for the rest of the war, but we kept 
rioht on through it and encam]>ed in the town of Haincheval, just the 
other side of it. Baiiichc\al. fi-om the first, presented the apj)earance 



THE CO]MPANY HISTORY 39 

of a dirty, one-horse and totally iininterestiiif>; town of about foin- or 
five hundred inmates, and the yard whieh they allotted to us to pitch 
our pup tents in was small and dirty as well. We remained in this 
yard for one lon^' rainy week, with seldom a night passin<>' in which 
at least one pup tent would be kicked down by men returning- to camp 
after a champagne and cognac party. As it began to get cold at night 
then, we recei\ed orders to pack up and move camp into the afore- 
mentioned woods, where there were a number of clean bow huts, made 
of corrugated iron, and built by the British. 

These huts were a paradise after puj) tents with muddy ground, 
their chief advantages being that we could keep dry and have a light 
after dark to read or write letters, due, of course, to the opacpie roof. 

We had some good times in these huts during the month we re- 
mained at Uaincheval. Someone discovered an excellent Kxpedition- 
ary F'orce Canteen — run by the English — near by, and we coidd there 
buy all the extras in the line of food luxuries that we wanted. We 
had good dry bed-sacks to sleejj on, — we were not worked too hard, — 
there were several families in town who would cook anything one 
wanted (provided he ])aid for it) — and the war news at that time, 
being that of the Allies' successful advance, was very encouraging. 

Therefore, it is Tiot surprising that we enjoyed ourselves at Rain- 
cheval. We were given to understand that our division was to be used 
as shock troops, and would probably soon l)e pushed into a vital j)oint 
in the line. 

While at Raincheval there was another inter-platoon football 
<?ame, as well as a company game with C Company. C Company beat 
our company team, while the second and third platoons battled to a 
— score. Then, while we were here, the famous "Deliiuiuents Club" 
was organized, founded and flourished. The membership and initia- 
tion fees to the club were very .small. In fact, new members to the 
society were not even pro])osed by the old-timers. The chief ))in-pose 
of the club was to uplift the morale of the company, and to this end 
the "active" members labored and labored; doing, in fact, about all 
the labor that would natin-ally fall to the lot of all the privates. All 
men absent from or late at reveille, be it only three steps out of the 
line when the Toj) Sergeant yelled "Fall in," were automatically 
elected "active" members of the club, with all privileges while in 
France to be withheld from them. This imposing sentence, hoAvever, 
was soon forgotten in the rush of more important events. 

One day we were told that we were going to have manreuvres. To 
the average soldier very few things are more uninteresting than 
manoeuvres, so this announcement did not cheer us up very much. 
Hut these were to be on a grand scale, as we were soon to find out. 
We started westward one afternoon, and hiked five hours with oidy 
ten minutes rest each hour, and at dark foimd ourselves at Canaples, 
and a long way from home. ^Ve pitched tents, however, and got a 
little sleep, being allowed no liberty into the town of Canaples, but 
being forced to remain within the confines of camj). Reveille was 



40 



TIIK COMPANY II IS TOR V 



very early, so that we could ^et a flying start, which we did. V]> to 
noon, we had the linihers with us to carry the ouns. so that all we had 
to carry was oui- packs. W'e moved slowly, very slowly, hack in the 
•>enei-ai direction of Kaincheval until ai'tei- lunch, which we had on 
the i-oad. It seemed that the attack was \ery well timed, hecause it 
hegan right after lunch, which gave us a chance to eat first. We ad- 
vanced, with the guns. em])ty ammunition hoxes, and our packs, from 
one hastily constructed gun position to anothci-. One jdatoon was the 
hase platoon, and stayc<i near the lindiers; anothci- platoon was moi'c 
in the nature of a link hetween headquarters and the jjlatoon which 
kept going riglit forward with the infantry. Those unfoi'tunatcs who 
wevv in this last platoon ke])t moving foi-ward, mounting and dis- 
mounting the gun, aiming at imaginary enemies with imaginary am- 
munition, lugging the guns over hills and roads and kee})ing right up 
with the infantry all the time, until ahout four in the afternoon. At 
that time the whole platoon was "all in, " and the only thing wliicli 
cond'orted them was the sight of a trench moi'tar battery doing the 
same thing with all their heavy ])araphernalia. i\t four o'clock some 
oflicial-looking car sto])pe(I near us, and everybody breathed a sigh of 
relief, and we started back. Rut our sighs of i-elief were unwarranted, 
because the new orders were that, as we had not ke])t the proper 
amount of hai.son with the troops on oui- left and right, we had to go 
back, start again, and do it all o\ er again. Wv did not take this order 
too seriously, as it was physically impossible, and surely enough, when 
we got back to where the limbers awaited us, we threw the guns on 
them and hiked oft' foi" Kaincheval and home, sto])])ing on the road 
for suppei-, and arrixing back at cam]> long after dark. 




CHAPTER FIVE 

THE DEVASTATED COUNTRY 

Fro/It Tincuurt to the Hiiidciibiiry lAiic 



X September 24tli. at'tei- waiting- at Kaincheval for oxer 

O three weeks, we were ordered to get up one morning at 
three A. ^I., eat some hikewarm miieilage that had onee 
been oatmeal, and (h-ink some sugarless eoffee, pack up, 
and start out. We entrained at Anthieule. some distance 
away, early in the morning, and rode southward all day. 
This train trip was the most interesting we had ever had, as. from 
the time we passed ^'illers-Bretonneux, which town marked the point 
at which the Germans had been stopped in their advance of the spring, 
the whole country was devastated, and bore the unmistakable signs 
of teri'ific fighting, such as we had heard of l)ut until then had not 
seen. Scarcely a single house had a roof left intact, and there were no 
signs of any living thing, not even trees, except now and then a soli- 
tary Tommy or two. working on the railroad oi- poking about in what 
had been but a sliort while ago a hastily consti-ucted trench. All the 
afternoon we rode through this interesting country, until shortly before 
nightfall. A blockade in the road ahead of our train delayed us for 
over an houi' just south of Peronne. and it was dark when we finally 
passed through the I'uins which had once been that flourishing city. 
On this trip we knew our destination to be Tincoui't. and a billet- 
ing officer had been sent ahead to secure billets for the battalion. After 
seeing the sort of country we were entering, however, we did not hope 
for much in the shajjc of comfort as far as l)illcts were concerned, and 
we were right. 

We disembarked ( Septenil)e)- 24t]i) at Tincoui't, but it was after 
midnight l)efore we arrived at a small woods northwest of 'lVmj)leux- 
la-Fosse. another ruined town that we passed through on the hike. In 
this woods were a few "elephant-shelter"" huts such as we had had in 
Kaincheval. but these were somewhat different, having no floors, and 
little shelter from the wind at each end of the hut. Xo lights were 
permitted, but it was a tine night, with a full moon, so that it was easv 
to see while the ]>acks were unrolled. The men cm-led up in their 
blankets for a sleejj. From three o'clock on, however, it rained, and 
those who Mere not sleeping in the huts got drenched. 

AN^e managed to dry out, though, during the dav which followed, 
and we explored the woods and the systems of trenches, barbed wire 
and dugouts, which had been occupied by the Germans less than a week 



41 



42 TlIK COMPANY lUSTOKY 

before. We had been expressly warned a<;aiiist pieking anythiii<i: up, 
as there was no tenin<^- liow many concealed mines had been left in 
alluring spots. Oui- enthusiasm for souvenirs had been dampened l)y 
severalstories which had drifted our way before we reached the woods, 
one of them, for instance, relating how two British stretcher-bearers 
had come across the body of a dead Jerry lying on a stretcher. They, 
in all good faith, decided to give the poor wretch a decent ])urial. and 
to that end picked u]) the stretcher. Jerry, it seems, had anticipated 
just that, and bits of tiie Tommies" clothing were found near the hole. 

Accordingly, we were rather careful about what we stepped on 
or wliat we ])icked uj). One "apple-knocker" even went so far as to 
procure about a hundred feet of wire and attach it to a Jerry l)clt with 
a bayonet attached, the bayonet being stuck into the ground. After 
getting a safe distance away he gave a jerk to the wire, expecting to 
witness a beautiful explosion. But nothing happened, and the belt 
and bayonet were his. 

The remainder of the day was spent by most of us in erecting 
suitable sheltei-s with the help of corrugated iron, in case it should 
rain again the coming night. It did not, however, and we enjoyed a 
comfortable slee]) — the last one. by tlic way. that most of us were to 
enjov for some time to come. 

Then, on the morning of Sei)tember -idtli. we were told tliat the 
time for "big stunt" had arrived, and that we were going to go in tlie 
line to trv to bi-caiv thi-ougli the Hun's strong positions in tlie famous 
Hindenburg Line. Shortly after breakfast the gun teams were 
])icked. and those who were to stay beliind and guard the kitchen and 
camp were chosen, and everyliody set to work polishing up each gun. 
turning all the aniiiiunition in tlie belts, seeing that the limbers were 
])acked properly, and attending to all the things that a last-minute 
inspection of the e(pii])ment made necessary. 

At this ])oint in tlie proceedings, however, the morale of the com- 
pany was very mucli shaken by a queer malady which affected seven- 
teen of the men. all of whom got very sick inside of half an hour. The 
symptoms were those of ptomaine poisoning, and were so violent in 
n'lany cases that a few had to be carried back to the huts on stretchers, 
while the rest groped their way there. Many thought they had been 
gassed, but Doc Tebbutt seemed to decide that the illness was due 
largelv to a ])oisoiicd portion of the hash which had been served for 
breakfast that nioniing. d\ie to the fact that most of the men taken 
sick were from the same ))latoon and ate together on the mess line. 

This unforeseen accident necessitated a rearrangement of many 
of the squads, and almost all of the men who had been selected to stay 
behind were thereu])on assigned to suuads. and the kitchen and head- 
<|uarters guarding was left to the sick men when they should have 
recovered. 

The company lined up shortly after two o'clock at Tincourt 
'Woods, therefore, and marched forwai-d to do their ])art in breaking 
through the Hindenbuig Line. 




f-< 



CHAPTER SIX 

THE HINDENBURG LINE 'STUNT'' 
Bv CHARLES DE B. DOWNES 



KTHUR TKAIX in one of hi>s interestiiio- "Tiitt and Mr. 
Tntt" short stories has the foi-nier incjuire, "How nnieli 
perfectly accurate testimony (io >()u think is ever given in 
a coiu't^" To which liis |)artner re])hes with conviction. 
■"Xonel"" 

Hohling much of the same opinion ahout a good many 
of the tales former members of the A. K. F. seem addicted to telling. 
I frankly hesitate ahout giving written testimony of the part 1 played, 
with better and worthier men. at the breaking of the Hindenburg 
Line. For. after all. what I write can he little more than a loose- 
jointed account of my own personal impi'cssions. And if we may 
consider a personal impression impartially, it is, ])erhaps. simply a 
reflection of one's state of mind at the time the im]M-ession was made. 
That is ahout all there is to this account of an event that was both 
great and heroic to the men wiio took j)art in it. as well as in the history 
of the war. Ilowevei-. it may help a bit for me to confess that J kept 
a diai'y of a sort in 1^' ranee and. like some others, wrote several letters 
that the censor apparently never read. To that pocket diary and to 
those letters I owe what otherwise miglit be mistaken for a good 
memory. Incidentally, I ha\e also tried very hard to keep my imag- 
ination seated upon the three-legged stool of facts, not so much from 
choice but in oi'der to avoid as much raucous criticism as jjossible. 

jt ik. Jjt, Jk. jit jjt Jt. 

At three o'clock in tlie afternoon of Thursday. September 26, 
1918, the KXith 31achine Gun liattalion left an impromptu camp near 
Tincourt and began its march to tlie Lines to take an active part in 
what is now known as one of the most momentous and decisive battles 
of the war — the bi-eaking of the Hindenburg Line. 

But — to speak more intimately — few of us in ]i Company real- 
ized at the time the vital part we were to i)lay in the five crowded davs 
that followed. 

Looking liack ujjon it now it seems we were either very dull-witted 
or very poorly informed not to realize that the success of the Allied 
advance — which began with Foch's brilliant attack on the ^Nlai-ne late 
in July — hinged altogether upon forcing the Germans to retire from 

4-3 



44 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

their stroiio' positions on the Evitisli front l)et\veen C:unl)rai and St. 
Quentin. The liritish and Anieriean (h-ive at that point — as we know- 
now — forced a German retreat on the entire front, and thns released 
the French in the Sonth. wlio liad advanced as far as ])ossihle without 
too l)oldlv exi)osin,<>- their left whi<>- that connected them with the 
JJritish ri<>ht. 

We realized little of this at the time hecause we hadn't seen a 
newspaj)er for se\eral weeks and few of us knew exactly wliere 
we weie. 

Hut tlic march to the front had enough (h'amatic color to satisfy 
the most exacting'. Yet we were not interested in what mi,<>-lit he 
termed war's local color, and were ratlier coldly indifferent to our 
.surrounding-s. It was not a matter of deliherate traininfj; that enahled 
us to view with passive interest the ruins of towns and all the wanton 
debris and ine\ itable de\astation of war. ^Ve had not in any con- 
scious way cultivated indifference. It had nrown upon us naturally 
and was as much a matter of ])hysical and mental necessity to us as 
food and water. ^Vitllout tliis singular inchlference a man could not 
"carry on." 

The averaj^e human mind cannot receive many shocking and 
violent impressions — which are naturally intensified by a vigorous 
imagination — without l)ecoming somewhat blunted. So after the first 
few shocks of war a man's sensibilities grow calloused, and his imagina- 
tion becomes a bit torpid. It is part of the law of adaptal)ility. And 
so we passed among the ruins of blasted towns and disemboweled fields 
witliout interest. 

However, an incident occurred which gave us a momentary thrill. 
The British observation balloons in that sector were pi-etty well for- 
ward and wc were j)assing through the balloon zone when suddenly 
and without warning a Jerry plane swooped down from unseen 
heights and headed straight for the big balloon, firing incendiary 
l)ullets fi-om its machine gun directly into the unprotected gas bag. 
Then, turning swiftly but with wonderful grace, it glided off again 
toward the (ierman lines, 'i'he two observers (lro{)ped fi-om the basket 
and after falling rapidly for several seconds their parachutes opened 
and thev drifted slowly with the wind, two weird figures under white 
umbicUas, to the ground. The balloon, of course, started to smokv 
and then l)urst into enveloping flames and was completely destroyed. 
The remarkable part of it was this sanic thing ha])])ened to two bal- 
loons almost simultaneously and witli the same result. Hy the time the 
Allied planes had started in pursuit the two .Terries were safe behind 
theii' own lines. 

Wc continued on our way without stopping. It was a long and 
trving hike, and we were glad when we stopped in the cool of the 
evening to mess on the roadside. 

After eating we resumed our march with an interval of some forty 
yards between platoons, as a jjrecaution in case the road were shelled. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 45 

We passed throiii^li the artilleiy zone as the hin- unns were be();innin<r 
their usual iii<>ht harassin^>' fire. 

And it must have been about eij^ht o'ehiek, for it was jj-etting; dark, 
when we finally reaehed a point where, at the time, it was thou<i'ht 
inadvisable to proeeed further with the limbers. So we lialted and 
each s(juad uidoaded its own g'un equipment and the limbers were 
moved off the i-oad. There seemed to be a little more excitement than 
the occasion warranted, because there was no heavy shelling in our 
inunediate vicinity. 

However, after some delay each man was ordered to take as mucli 
ecjuipment as he could cany and follow along in single tile, keeping 
the squads together as much as ])()ssible. We started off and found 
we had taken tlie wrong turn, so we sat by the side of the road and 
waited until somebody ascertained the direction we were su])pose(l 
to go. Then we started off again up a hard, hilly, back-!)reaking road. 
Every one of us had about as nnich as he could carry. As an illustra- 
tion I ])ersonally started with four full ammunition l)oxes suspended 
at the upper and lower end of a pick-axe handle, a petrol tin full of 
water and a bunch of sand bags. Everybody was loaded down and 
staggering. Even Lieutenant Selbv. who was leading, had four boxes 
of ammo. Numbers 1 and '2 changed off carrying the gun and tripod 
alternately, and by the time we reached our destination we were all 
cari'ving something different than we had started with. To cite 
another instance in the squad I was in. Charley Rea had the gun. a 
pick and a bunch of sand bags, and I had the tripod and two boxes of 
ammo. 

It was black night by the time we had gone half way and the 
whine of .lerrys shells was uncomfortably close. In the distance 
star shells and rockets festooned the night and the thunder of the 
guns was never still. At one ])oint several gas shells landed on the 
road directly in front of us and the gas alarm was given. That meant 
everything had to be drojiped on the sjjot and gas masks adjusted. 
Then we groped and stumbled and choked for breath, but managed 
to push on until Eieutenant Fuller tested the air and found it clear. 

We had to make two trips along that road carrying e(juipment 
entirely by hand. Each way it wa.s a good mile and a half, and to 
use an inelegant but vivid ])hrase we "sweated blood." The road was 
being irregulai'ly shelled and on the second trip "Clint"' Swan. Frank 
Lynch and several others were hit with shrapnel and had to be carried 
to the rear. 

When we had completed the second ti-ip. and before the gun 
positions had l)een selected, we were all crowded into a small signal 
head(|uartcrs trencli for rest and safety. We got neither. For we 
were hardly settled befoix- tw(! "whizz-bangs" landetl on the parapet 
of the trench, killing "Cxoldie" Ilardgrove and George Staudenmayer. 
wounding several others, and jangling our nerves like broken fiddle 
strings. That was probal)ly the woivst moment any of us ever ex- 
perienced. We were for the moment pretty nearly demoralized, every 



46 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



one of us. hut thanks to Lieutenant Selhy's jjresenee of mind we (Hdn't 
have time to think ahout it. He hustled us out of the treneh and we 
started mo\ iny- our ecjuipmeiit further forward to a shallow. so^<ry 
treneh where we set to work digging gun emplaeements and arranging 
our ])ositions. 

We had l)een working for about half an hour when Lieutenant 
Fuller returned fi-om Company Head(|uarters with a elear eoneei)ti()n 
of what was to he done and with definite ideas ahout the way to do it. 
With him eame one of the hest of soldiers and staunehest of men — 

.Sergeant ^Miller of the 




liattalion of the 
ralian Division. 



Aust- 



IHK CANAl, 1)1 NOKI) 



Both the 
adxiee he gave and the ex- 
ample he set were of inesti- 
mable \alue to our etfieien- 
ey and morale. 

I should like to state here 
nn(|nalitiedly that Lieuten- 
ants Fuller and Selby and 
Sergeant JNIiller were the 
th]-ee men to whom the ered- 
it is due foi' 1? Company's 
wonderfully etHeient work 
under all kinds of ditfieulties 
dui-ing the Hindenburg 
Stunt. Sergeant (later 
Lieutenant) Fisher is an- 
other who merits unstinted praise for his eool and eapable bearing under 
fire. Of the men in B Company who deserve medals for gallantry and 
resouree undei- fii-e Fidler and Selby head the list. I have mentioned 
these four men beeause 1 personally saw what they did and beeause 
they stand out more prominently in my memory for that rea.son. 

Fvery man who went into the lines ean reeall the men wlio not 
only ])laye(l the game without wineing but who also did things in a 
(juiet way that passed otfieially unol)served i)ut whieh wei'e aets of 
dowm'ight whole-hearted heroism. 

We had made good headway on our gun positions when Lieu- 
tenant Fuller arrived from Company Head(|uarters. And then the 
rain eame. .Softly and hesitatingly at first like a t|uiet mist whieh 
ehanged suddenly into a bleak, eold rain aeeompanied by a shar]), 
penetrating wind that lashed and stung us throughout the night. 

In a short time it had eovered the ground with a layer of slippery, 
slimy mud whieh made walking a matter of great difHeulty. Hut we 
had to walk and we also had to earry .j()-i)ound boxes of ammunition. 
We went down the road that ran past our positions to a sunken 
i-oad parallel to our treneh about HOO yards distant. That sunken 
road was the jumping-off plaee for the Infantry attaek the followino- 
morning. It was full of shell holes and debris and unelean things of 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



47 



all description. It only continued as a sunken road for a short dis- 
tance, and then rose to the level of the surrounding- fields. At that 
point we had to detour a considerable distance to avoid crossing!- the 
line of fire of an Australian field batterj- that was hammering inces- 
santly at the Hiui lines. AVe relished that part of the activities, 
although the noise was deafening and the Hashes of the guns absolutely 
blinding. But the trying part of the situation was that Jerry was 
trying to silence that battery and was "bumping" all over the land- 
scape in his attempts, and we were a miserable part of that landscape 
and longed earnestly to be elsewhere. 

We finally started back with a box of "ammo" between each two 
men. We carried on for a short distance and then we cracked. We 
were physically exhausted. The march during the day had taken 
some of our J)ep: the two tri|)s required to bring our equipment up 
to the line had lieavily drained our stamina; the nerve tension under 
the continual shelling, and the sight of some of our own friends 
wounded, had eaten like acid into our reserve strength: and finally, 
digging the emplacements, and the long walk in the dark, slippiiig 
along through the rain and nuid. falling into shell holes and trying 
to do what at the moment we were physically incaj)ai)le of doing, pro- 
duced the inevital)le result — we were all completely exhausted. 

But it can truthfully be 
said of every man that night 
that not one wanted to (piit 
nor even thought of doing it. 
Lieutenant Fuller took the 
rcs])onsibility on his own 
shoulders and ordered us to 
(him]) the "ammo" in a pile 
by the side of the sunken 
road. 

There we left it and 
went back to oiu' positions 
to finish getting ready to fire 
the barrage at dawn. 

Just a few minutes be- 
fore zero hour five of our 
guns were jnit out of action 
by shell fire. "Ferdie" Fre- 
richs was killed and every 
seriously woimded. 

And then the attack on the outpost i)ositions of the great Hinden- 
l)U!g system connnenced. 

The artillery barrage opened with a deafening roar and the air 
was full of the shock and moan of many shells. 

Just in front of our jjositions was a gently sloping liill. Near its 
crest were concealed some of the Cierman outpost machine gun nests. 
Our doughboys. sup]>orted by British tanks, walked up that hill with 




]U:i,I.I(.()l 1!T 



nemi)er of each ci'ew was more or less 



48 THE COMl'ANV HISTORY 

shells l)urstiii<4- all ardiind tlieiii and throwing- neyscrs of earth and 
siii()kin,<)- metal hi<^h into tiie air. Tiiev walked forward slowly and 
niethodieally. wasting- neither breath nor steps, mounted the hill and 
took all their ol)jeeti\es and a little more, desfjite a murderous maehine 
,i>un tii-e that eheeked them at the summit. 

The tanks were handieap])ed by the nmd and only a I'ew reaehed 
the top of the hill. Several were put out of action and burst into 
Hames as they rolled backward down the hill, but the doughboys kept 
going. 

After a while the wounded and the prisoners began to come back, 
and the day broke clear and crisp with heavy intermittent shelling that 
never stop])ed throughout the next forty-eight hours. 

The lOdth Infantry that had borne the brunt of the attack that 
morning suffered heavy casualties and it was necessary for the British 
artillery to hold the captured positions for forty-eight hours with a 
continuous barrage. 

Those forty-eight hom-s for us were what is otticially called (|uiet. 
It was simply a case of holding on and taking everything Jerry sent 
over without a single chance to hit back. And we took more than 
our share. 

During that time the artillery kept ])ounding incessantly, smash- 
ing and pidverizing the barbed-wire entanglements that constituted 
a formidable part of the Hindenburg defense system. At places those 
entanglements were more than six feet high and thicker than a wheat 
lield. 

All Saturday night and until five o'clock Sunday morning of the 
"29th the Hritish ai'tillery tired and pounded and never rested. Every 
two hoiu's a ten-minute barrage would sweep through the (German 
sup])ort lines and into the enemy artillery zone like a withering 
hurricane. 

We rested and slept the best we could in reliefs and waited for 
the big drive to start. During the day the (Germans shelled the 
stretcher bearers as they came back along the road past our jjositions. 

Satm'day night, Se|)tember 28th, was cold and the rain came and 
went in s(pialls. Battalions of tanks moved up silently through the 
night toward the front. The Cxerman artillery was very active and 
shelled heavily all night. Shells moaned and wailed through the dark- 
ness and "krumped" with grisly precision every few miinites. Enemy 
planes were also busy and the deadly shattering explosion of aii- bombs 
drowned at times the roar of the guns. 

Toward dawn the weather cleared and a little after five o'clock 
Sunday morning things (piieted down. Even the Hun guns were 
comparatively still. There was a feeling of expeetaney in the air and 
it seemed that the stai's blinked and winked and wondered at the 
oppi"essi\e silence. 

And then slowly and silently out of the east came the [jale, cold, 
frosty dawn with a tinge of ambei- on the far horizoji. We loaded our 
guns and waited and held our breath, foi- the silence was like a weight. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



49 



( 



Slowly the hands of our watches cliuihed to .5:4..5. Then far off 
in our rear two big naval ^uns boomed and growled. It was the signal 
for which we waited. Suddenly tlie air was rent asunder as hundreds 
of guns foi- miles around burst forth into a drum tire barrage of rage 
and thunder, flattening- the earth and all living things that were upon 
it in the neighborhood of tlie Cxcrman lines. 

Our machine guns spit tire and shot and sprayed the Cierman 
infantry lines witli tliousands upon thousands of machine gun bullets. 
Nothing h'ved within the battered (German trenches except those wlio 
had gone down into tlie tunnels deep within the bowels of the earth. 

The noise was ear-splitting and the flashes of the guns tore the 
soft twilight of the dawn and set botli skv and earth abla/c with tlie 
red fury of war. 

The German S. O. S. signal flashed high into the skv— two green 
rockets over a red— and the big guns of the Huns roarecf and 
•krumped" in desperate ett'ort to clieck the advancing American and 
Australian infantry. 

Shells of every descri])tion— high explosive shells, overhead 
.shrapnel, gas shells, ground shrapnel, whizz-bang-s, incendiary shells 
and machine g-un bullets— roared, shrieked, moaned and whined and 
crashed to atoms everywhere. Every s(iuare vard .seemed the objective 
of some shell, and we (Mily escaped destruction bv .some whim of Fate 
or by some mathematical inaccuracy on the part'of the Cierman artil- 
lery oflicers. Looking back on it now. it was positively uncanny. 

Rut. oh. the glory and the splendor and the zest of it all! Rome 
never saw its equal and Napoleon never conceived of a spectacle so 
.supreinely epic. It made of Homer a drv, prosaic old babbler, and 
iJante s Inferno a placid dream. 

When the barrag-e lifted the doughbovs went over the toj) sup- 
ported by Rritish tanks manned by American crews. They broke the 
liindenburg- Line and pressed on in the striking claws of a flerce and 
desperate re.si.stance. The "Aussies" followed up and crossed the 
canal and inounted the bridg-e on the other side. Yet the roar and 
thunder of the guns never ceased. 

While the big guns in the rear moved forward the fleld ijieces 
redoubled their efl'orts and as soon as the "heavies" started flring- 
again the fleld batteries would limber up and dash forward behind six- 
horse teams throug:h shot and shell to unlimber again nell forwird 
and be^in hurling shell after shell into the retreating Huns. It was 
intensely picturesque and gripping and at times seemed almost thea- 
trical. 

The wounded and the jjrisoners started coming- back as the Aus- 
tralian reserves advanced, and we were on the receiving- end of a 
Crernian barrag-e laid down to prevent the mo\'ement of reserves and 
supplies. 

That nig-lit we held strong positions precautionarv to anv possible 
counter attack. It rained again and we spent a most"miserable iii<.ht 
\\ e were cold and wet and hungry, and the heavv shells continued t.'. 



50 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



"kriiuii)" and ci-asli all arouiul us. The iiii^lit was t)lac'k and full of 
tJiisty wind and rain. 

Reports filtt-red tlirouuh slowly and there was a lot of ^'eneral 
uneertainty ahout the results of the day. So we stood hy our guns 
and siiivered until the rlaniniy, gray dawn hroke. when we received 
hot eoffee and hegan to hear piecemeal fragments of the news. 

And I think many of us thought in this strain: 

'riKJiiiili the thunder of tmitle rolls in the (lisUnur. 

The Uviiui ijrrss on through the (Uirk tind the rain. 
<) liar is hell, nnd the living suffer 

Hut the dead lie facing the falling rain. 

But that mood ])assed when we were relieved a coujile of days 
later and treated royally hack at camp. A hot meal, chocolate, candy 
and plenty of cigarettes, made possihle hy the energies of "Tod" 
Fisher and the ^Mothers' Auxiliary fund. ])lus a good night's sleep, 
made new men of us in the morning and we rememhered only the "high 
spots." the exhilaration and tlie zest of it all. 

That's all, perhaps, we rememher now — the good times we had 
together in those days that seem so long ago. They were good times 
and hard times and times that tested men, and they held days that 
men of this generation will never see again. 





CHAPTER SEVEN 

FRONT LINE AGAIN 

From Buire to La Sabliere Woods 

HOSE who, by reason of the so-called "hash-poisoning," 
had been forced to remain beliind the lines m safety while 
all this was going on. got their first taste of how tlie folks 
at home must have felt while there was fighting. There 
Mas this ad\antage, however, namely, that only a com- 
paratively short time would elapse before the worst would 
be known, anrl known definitely. There were no casualtv lists to pick 
up 111 the morning, to lie sure, yet ne\ertheless there was the same 
uncertain helplessness that all oiir families and loved ones must have 
been experiencing during all those months that we were in danger. 
Yet it seemed as if no feeling of restrained helplessness could 
etpial that experienced by the men in the back-area when the first news 
of casualties among their comrades began to come back to them. And 
there was nothing to be done but to chafe at the restraint which kept 
them behind the lines, and out of reach of opportunities for retaliation 
on the brutes who had hurt their friends. 

But one opportunity was given to be of service, and this oppor- 
tunity involved one of the hardest and most unpleasant tasks in the 
world : that of burying one's friends. The bodies of the three men who 
had been killed. Ferdie Frerichs. Goldie Hardgrove and George 
Staudenmayer. were taken to the small cemeterv at Saulcourt, and 
given decent Christian burial. Chaplain C. E. Towle. of the British 
Army, conducting the services. There thev now lie. thi-ee white crosses 
nmrking their graves. Even the cemeterv itself indicates the nature 
of the struggle between the two armies. The greater numbei- of the 
graves are those of the old French families who lived in Saulcourt in 
times gone by. Next to them are the graves of the English d^iM] 
killed during the retreat before the tremendous advance of the Hun 
m the spring. Then, in their turn, come rows of (German graves, whidi 
tell a silent story of a successful advance by the British over the same 
ground they had given. And. lastly, are more English. Canadian and 
Australian graves, which show the Hun must have given terrible resist- 
ance. And then there are the three graves of our bovs. the onlv Amer- 
icans m the silent, peaceful little cemeterv nestling quietly near the 
ruins of the unhappy town. 



31 




•■(). l." K \MI(()l K r 



A\'itli this sad, hut ciniiK'ntly satisfactory deed accoiuphshed. tlie 
kitchen and c()ni])any headcjuarters moved up to \"illers-Fauc()n on 
Septeinher 'iUth. there to await the return of the company from their 
successful hreakin<4' of the Hue. and tlie more successful holding of that 
line for days afterwai-ds. Relieved from their i)ositions, the men, 
tired, hag-gard. dirty and careworn, returned to spend the night of 
Octoher .'Jrd at ^"illers-Faucon, and hiked hack to Buire the next day. 

Cons])icuous among the memorahle deeds of the comiKUiy during 
this trying week was the notahle work of the transport, which hrought 
the rations u]) to the men over roads full of shell-holes and under 
almost constant shell-tire from big guns. 'I'he tratiic along these 
roads, at night, was enormous, and conse<|uently highly congested, 
which fact made the work more hazardous and difficult. The success 
of the o])erati()ns was made possible largely by the splendid work of 
Proctor and Huchei-, who worked like the nudes they drove, the former 
with a high fever most of the time. 

Buire was almost indistinguishable as a town. cxcej)t by its indica- 
tion on the map. Thei-e were no houses left standing. i)ut there were 
(|uite a few small ele])hant huts with dry floors in them. But the ex- 
])osure of the trenches liad been too nuich for the health of a great 
many of the boys, and liardly a day passed wherein a few of them 



o'^ 



THE CO.AIPANY HISTORY 53 

Mere carried oft' to a lio.sjjital train with the iiiHuenza or piiemnoiiia. 
The enforced close proximity of the small huts made the flu spread 
moi-e rapidly tliau it shovdd have, so that by the time we left Buire 
less than forty remaiueil in good health in the com])any, excluding 
the transport. 

The oidv interesting things at T?uire were the haths at Doingt, 
near by: watching the snajjpy but i-atiier foolish English guard-mount- 
ing in the town; listening to the band of the l()8th Infantry: and a 
memorial service of the 108th Infantry, given by the survivors on 
October 7tli, in honor of those of their comrades who had fallen. At 
these services, it will be remend)ered. Colonel Jennings of the lOHth 
Iid'antry made the announcement that the entii-e division was going 
hack of the lines for a long rest, lia\'ing done its duty. 

Instead of going to the back area, however, we left Buire after 
dai'k on the evem'ng of October 8th and mai-cbed to Villeret, a small 
town which had l)een almost within the Ilindcnburg Line, and was 
directly south of the (juarry where company headcpiarters had been 
a week before. This ])lace had no billets whatsoever, so most of us 
rolled up in our blankets on the ground without removing our clothes, 
as the night was frosty and the ground damj). It was midnight before 
we wei'c settled, and there were frecpient anti-aircraft barrages put 
up right over us. so that the fragments of shells spattered all around us. 
One plane, in ])articular, was foolish enough to get caught in the glare 
of a searchlight,- but escaped unharmed. This was. nevertheless, a 
very jjretty sight as we lay on the ground looking up at it, the tiny 
white wings resembling a moth fluttering around in the glare of an 
arc light on a street cornei' back home. 

We left A'illeret directly after lunch on the following day, Octo- 
iier !>th, after most of us had tired ourselves out building shelters to 
s])end the next night in. and stai'ted a long l)ut interesting hike. We 
marched right through the Hindenburg Line, then behind (jur lines, 
marveling at its wonderful defences of wire, concrete pill-hoxes and 
dug-outs, and noting the devastation all around us, indicating the des- 
perate stand of a retreating enemy. We marched through Hellicourt. 
under which ran the celel)rated underground Canal du Xord. We 
trudged along through Xaui-oy, Joncourt and ^Montbrehain, until 
darkness overtook us at Kamicoiu't. All along the road were strewn 
the bodies of the Germans who lay where they had fallen in the haste 
of the retreat. Tlie numbers of (TCi-man signs everywhere made us 
realize that the country we were then marching through had been part 
of Germany for over four years. We slej)t in the dilapidated but 
well-remembered I'aili'oad station at Hamicourt, after eating suj)per in 
the dark. One advantage of eating in the dark was that if von were 
hungry and a quick eater you could doul)le up on the line without the 
mess sergeant's noticing you. But. on the othei- hand, in the darkness 
the mess sergeant really had the advantage, because he could serve 
anything and in small portions without having them discovered until 
too late. 



.34 THE COMPANY IIISTOUV 



SAULCOURT CEMETERY 

By F. S. YORK. Jr. 

A picture that is liurned deeply into my lueinory is that 
of three graves in a little French cemetery at Saulcoiu't. not 
far from Villers Faueon. in hattle-.scarred France. One rainy 
morning- in September, 1918, I helped dig those graves. We 
l)urie(i three of our best boys there, and while cannons roared 
a few miles eastward a British Army chaplain conducted the 
simple service. 

We stood there with uncovered heads. The rain was fall- 
ing, Init no one noticed that. We were thinking of home and 
of the mothers who were fighting the hardest battle of all. 
Somehow we did not pity those three brave lads. They had 
died at their guns in one of the greatest battles of the great- 
est of all wars. If death had to come, who wouldn't choose to 
die as they did:* And as we stood there with bowed heads the 
words of those inspii-ed verses came to me: 

"Take up our (piarrel with the foe. 
To you from falling liands we throw tlie torcli — 
Ee youi-s to hold it high: 
If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep, though pop])ies grow 
In Flanders' fields. " 




KSCAIFOL'RT 



The next iii()riiiii<^- was pei-liaps tlie most interesting,! from the 
point of view of souvenirs, that many of us had had up to ihat time. 
Immediately after hreakfast we wandered around among the l)attered 
(ieiinan machine gun nests, inspecting the broken tank on tlie liill, 
throwing ^Nlills bombs, finding German notebooks and pictures, and 
marking the progress of tlie tight, chiefly from the direction in which 
the dead ^Vustralians lay, with their arms outstretched and their fists 
clenched. A woman's dress was found in one of the machhie gun 
nests, proving that Jerry had enlisted the aid of the women to help 
him tire his machine guns. We did not see any signs of the much- 
talked-of (xerman atrocities, except in one solitary instance. While 
])assing through .loncourt, the evening before, in one of the houses 
which lined the road lay the body of a woman with her throat cut, but 
we could only conjecture whether or not this had been suicide. 

We moved forward again from Ramicourt after lunch on October 
lOth, and hiked as far as Fremont, where we ate supper again in the 
dark, and pitched pu]) tents in a small orchard. It rained most of the 
night and we awoke to the joys of breaking camp, rolling our packs 
in the rain and starting forward again. This we did at 7:.'J() A. M. 

We did not keep to the road, but hiked over fields to a small hol- 
low east of Fremont, sheltered from observation by a small woods, 
named on the map I.,a Sabliere Woods. This hollow was to be our 
headquarters, even as Beauvoorde ^\''oods had been in the northern 



oo 



56 THE COMPANY IllSrOHV 

country, so we i)itt'lie(l tents af>:iin and rested that afternoon. One- 
lialf the coriipany was chosen to "^o foi-ward and occu])y tlie trenches 
that ni<>ht, and so they ^ot i-eady to move at tit'teen minutes' notice, 
strikino- their tents, and waiting, jjacks i-olled. When the word finally 
came it was three in the moi-nin,<«'. and it had rained continuously since 
shortly after dark, starting-, it seemed, almost immediately after the 
tents iiad been struck. There were oidy a few tents left standing, and 
these were crowded to capacity liy the men who wanted to rest out of 
the rain, hut many simply lay there in the mud and rain, waiting for 
the order to mo\e. 

They went forward, at length, and oci'upied the temjjorary first- 
line trenches near Bec(|uignv, on the morning of October 11th, remain- 
ing hi the trenches all that day and firing a short barrage at 4:30 P. M. 
This barrage was short, but it was answered immechately by hea\y 
shelling of overhead shra])nel from Jerry, and it seemed miraculous 
that no casualties resulted in the company. In fact, from this time on 
the company seemed to bear a chai-mcd life, because pure dumb luck 
was the outstanding feature of whatever engagement the company 
Avas mixed uj) in. Shells would land very near, but the fragments 
never seemed to hit anything but the ground, trees or the trench. 

The other half of the company moved forward from the hollow 
that afternoon and relieved the first half just after dark. The relief 
was not accomplished without considerable waitings and delays, due 
to the guide's losing his way. The trenches were at the outskirts of 
another small wood, the trees of which did not average more than 
fifteen fee) in height. The company at that time was only of sufficient 
strength to man four guns, whereas the other com])anies of the bat- 
talion consisted of eight guns each. Many of the shells of the aftei'- 
noon had containe<l mustai-d gas. so that at vario\is ])oints of the 
woods the concentration of gas was (juite strong. Luckily, however, 
it was raining once more before the i-elief was completed, so that the 
danger from gas was not so great as it would have been had the ground 
been dry. Secure in the knowledge of the habits of mustard gas. 
gleaned from i)aying wrapt attention to the lectures of Fi-ank Lynch 
and John Mulvaney. we gained the positions in safety. It was then 
found tha.t. due to the firing of the barrage and also to the rain and 
mud. three ol' the I'our guns of the com])aiiy were totally out of action, 
and could not ha\e fired a shot. Fom- new guns were at that time on 
their way u|). but the guide lost his way and it was oidy through the 
efforts of lleri) !*'ischer that they were finally found, tilled with water, 
and brought to the gun positions before day broke. There had been 
no occasion to ust' the guns dui'ing that time, however, which was for- 
tunate, as. had there l)een a countei-attack. the positions imist ha\e 
been sacrificed. 

Meanwhile, temjjorary company headciuarters had been mf)ved 
up to a house in the town of lieccjuigny. so that, when the first half 
of the comiKiny again relieved the othei- hall' the next night (October 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



57 



18th). those who had l)een in the trenches only had to <to as far haek 
as liectjui^ny, and not to the hoHow. 

So tlien Octoher 1 ."Jth found half the company doln^ their second 
twentv-four-hour shift in the line, with the other half restin^)- at Bec- 
(Uiiiiiiv. Octoher 13th was a wonderfiillv clear, sunshiny day. in direct 
contrast to the week preceding, in which it had rained almost eyery 
day. As a consequence the sky was dotted with aeroplanes, flying at 
all heights and in all sorts of formations, and with ohseryation hallof)ns 
stretching away to the left and right as far as the eye could reach. A 
wonderful air hattle took place almost directly oyer t)ur gun positions, 
and within easy view of company headcpiarters. Four Cierman planes 
tried to steal oyer to shoot down the ohseryation halloon just hack of 
headcpiarters. A harrage was inunediately put up. which was danger- 
ous, as there were so many English planes in the vicinity. The Allied 
machines, however, did not a])])ear to notice the CTcrman planes. Anti- 
aircraft guns opened uj) from hitlierto concealed places all around us, 
hut could not seem to hit the planes. The Jerries then, changing their 
plans, managed to separate one hapless English plane from his forma- 
tion, and three of the Cxcrman planes engaged him. while the fourth 
hovered around to give hattle to any interrupting machines. All four 
tighting planes flew heautifully. doing nose dives, all sorts of turns, 
di])s and spirals, flring at eacli other all the while. This continued for 
a few seconds, when suddenly the solitary IJritish plane, crip])le(l, 
circled slowly to the earth, making a safe landing hetween head- 
(juarters and our ])ositions. The three German planes, apparently 
satisfled with theii- unfair work, immediately joined the other (German, 
and escaped hack over their own lines. Several of the men went to 
look at the plane which had heen hrought down, and it was found that 
the pilot had heen shot through the head and killed instantly, while 
the ohserver, mortally wounded, had hrought the machine down just 
hefore he, too, had collajjsed. Incjuisitive spectators were ordered 
away from the vicinity, however, as it was said that Jerry had a 
favorite habit of shelling the spots where aeroplanes landed, on the 
expectation of crowds collecthig there. 




PKROXNE 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

OPEN WARFARE 

Through St. Souplet 




X the nii-lit of October l.'Jtli the eoiiipuny was relieved 
fVoiii the hue, and ])roeeeded hack to tlie hollow at La 



Saliliere Wood. All the next (hiy and the followino- iiioht 
the company rested, and the (hiy was uneventful except 
for the ])assin<>- thronuh oui- i-iiiip of a number of whippet 
taidvs, l)oiind for the front. 
Captain Houstield had left the company at Euire with the flu, so 
that Lieutenant Badenhausen was in command of what was left of the 
original com])any. On the afternoon of October 1-tth we received 
orders to be ready to move at fifteen miiuites' notice, and the company 
was divided up into four s([uads, or one ])latoon, in command of I^ieu- 
tenant Fuller. From now on, as had been the case in the Ilindenburj^' 
Line stunt, the work of Lieutenant Fuller, together Avith that of 
Lieutenant Selhy, cannot be given too much |)raise. They were with 
the men at all times, and their quick decisions, involving as they did 
all our lives, were such as to steady the men and give them contidence 
in the success of the o])erations. These two, with Herb Fischer, 
deserve the gratitude and heartfelt ai)])reciation of everyone in the 
company, and it was largely through their untiring efforts that the 
company was brought through from that point on with only one slight 
( gas ) casualty. 

Several of the non-com's went forward in advance of the party 
and marched to Kscaufourt to assist in making prei)arations for the 
coming barrage. The balance of the company followed just before 
dark, and arrived oji the scene to find a row of stakes and aiming marks 
all prepared for them. It only remained for us to dig "V" trenches 
behind each gun jjosition, and to fill sandbags witli whicii to steady the 
tripods. This was accomplished during comparative quiet, only a few 
shells laiuhng on our right at regidar intervals. Our gun positions 
were directlv l)ehind a six-foot hedge, over which we fired, and so were 
screened from view in front. Nevertheless, we gathered shrubbery to 
camoufiage our positions, although that ])roved to be unnecessary, as 
our work was finished before it got liglit the next morning. 

It rained again for a short while during oui' digging of the posi- 
tions, just so that we should not get too lonesome or diy. but luckily 
cleared off again. The positions prepared, we tramped back to a barn 



.58 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 59 

ill Escaufourt for a brief sleep. The owner of the barn was a French- 
man who had evidently been ill-used by the Germans for four years, 
as he was only too olad to sjjeak French again and was ready to give 
us anything we desired. 

We were awakened shortly after four o'clock and given a very 
good l^reakfast, rudely cooked at the fireplace by one or two of the 
jjrivates. Our shoes had had a chance to g'et almost dry by the fire- 
side, so that we might have been worse off. Zero hour for the barrage 
was orJO plus thirty seconds, and before five o'clock we wei-e out at our 
positions setting up the guns and getting everything in readiness for 
the coming barrage. Our work consisted mainly in laying each gun 
according to the proper direction, which was so-and-so-many degrees 
to the left of our aiming marks. This was no sligiit job in the dark 
and with the consciousness that a good deal depended ujjon our 
accuracy. 

At ,5:20, just thirty seconds before we opened up, a battery of 
machine guns started their nnisical rattling fire on our right, and just 
before it came our tiu"n the artillery tore loose behind us. The roar 
was so great that we could hardly distinguish Eieutenant Fuller's 
whistle to commence firing, but we pressed the thumb-pieces anyway, 
and the barrage was on. 

This barrage was shorter than the previous ones, but while it 
lasted was just as exciting. Xot only that, but day was just breaking, 
and the mist of the dawn, added to the smoke barrage being put over 
by the artillery, made the air so full of cordite that we had to wear the 
mouth-jjieces and nose-clips of our gas masks. After ten minutes of 
steady firing, we were ordered to move forward, being used, with our 
four guns, as a l)attery of o])portunity, while the other companies of 
the battalion, having eight guns each, remained behind in reserve. 

So we started forward along the road, the limbers with us, and 
om" gas masks half on, proceeding as far as St. Souplet, where we 
halted in the shelter of a building which had once been intact. Tiie 
artillery quieted down slowly while we waited there, until it got so 
that we could begin to distinguish the Cierman shells from the noises 
made by our own guns. 

Finally the ofticers and Herb Fiscliei-, who had lieen recomioiter- 
ing ahead, returned, and we again started forward. In the middle 
of the town was a iiastily constructed first-aid dressing station, with 
many captured (xermans acting as stretcher-bearers. 

This novelty was soon forgotten when we turned a corner of tiie 
street and beheld before us a long road descending to a small river, 
and the rolling country rising and falling for miles l)eyond. It was a 
beautiful view, and at any other time some of us would no doubt liave 
enjoyed it, but, with the realization that we could see the enemy's terri- 
tory came the embarrassing thought that we could also be seen, stand- 
ing as we were in the center of the road. 

Those of us who did not realize this at once were soon made to 
know it l)y the miml)ers of 9.2's which l)egan landing in the buildings 




Till', TOl' OF THE HII.I, IX ST. SOlT'l.KT 



oil dill' kit and I'iii'ht. cTUiiHjliii<4' soiiif of tlu-iii up as if tliev had \)fv\\ 
liouscs of cards. We did not liesitate. therefore. A.s we descended 
the hill at doiihlc time. Lieutenant Badenhauseii. running' in front of 
the mules, noticed tlie shells landiny' in the road in front of us. C'on- 
se(iueiitly, with head-work for which we shall always he grateful, for 
to it we owed our lives, he turned ns off into a side street on the right. 
We followed this for a few rods, and then down the hill again on a 
smaller street j)arallel to the main road, which was. however, screened 
from view. Several buildings, which in the shelling had been reduced 
to mere piles of hricks on the road, obstructed our passage, but every- 
body fell to on the wheels of the limbers., and practically carried the 
wagons over and on once more. 

W'c again turned to the left and soon entered u])on the main road 
again, a shoit distant'c down the hill from where we had turned off from 
it. and kept on going at full speed down the hill, hop])ing over bi-oken 
down telegra])h wii'cs, hurdling bodies of dead soldici-s, and dodging 
shell-holes made in the road. ^Ve finally arrived at the bottom of the 
road, whei'c there should have been a bi'idge across the river situated 
thei-c, which, by the way, was the LeSclle Ui\ei', from the name of 
which the battle was named on our discharges. As a matter of fact, 

W^e turned oft' to the left, following the I'ivei'. and noting a num- 
there had been a bridge, but Jerry had blown it up in his retreat, and 
there were engineers at work trying to build a new one under tire, 
her of infantryiiicM standing waist-deep in the ri\er, leaning again.st 
the opposite i)ank, as if they exjjcctcd something would roll over on 
them. Tiiey were merely bracing themselves against the bank to ob- 



60 




HKYOM) THK K1\KI{ AT SI'. SOIPI-ET 



tain its added ])rotection from the shell-fire, which in onr excitement 
of rnnninj4' we had he<>-un to i<ifnore. 

Ahont a hundred yards upstream we found a small hridge, just 
l)i<>' enough to allow the limhers to pass over, and which the (xermans, 
in theii' haste, had forgotten to destroy. We crossed this and gal- 
loped another hundred yards to the he<j'inning' of a steep hill, whei'e 
we sat down and rested, with ample protection from the shells, as the 
hill was steeper than the trajectories of the 9.'2's. As we sat there and 
cau<>ht our hreaths aaain and watched the hiy shells whiz/ overhead 
and land, some of them on the very road over which we had just come 
successfully, or now and then a few shells land in a huilding amid a 
clond of hrick-red smoke and dust and scattered dehris. we i>'ave in- 
ward thanks to the (jiiick decision of our officers, and to oiu' lucky 
stars, the comhination of which had hroufjht us through the town with- 
out a scratch. Sitting there on the hill was a somewhat similar situa- 
tion as that of the artillery exhihition han-age at the range near 
Spartanburg, but, oh, how different! 

Before we advanced again a wounded doughboy of the 108th 
Infantry was discovered with a bad wound in his leg. around which a 
pistol had been twisted as a toiu"ni(|uet. Our only stretcher was used 
to carry him to the dressing-station back in the town. Just what we 



01 



62 THE COMPAXY IIISTOKY 

should have had to do had we needed the stretcher hiter on, no one 
knows, hut luekily we (hd not need it. although all the iudieations 
pointed that way at the time. 

After a short rest, the mules and limhers were left in the shelter 
of the protecting hill, and the <)uns were moved forward over the hill 
into positions of support to the advancing' infantiy. i\t the top of 
the hill was a lot of harhed wire, cleverly arranged to he on the sky- 
line, and an ahandoned railroad. We were told that our harrage had 
fallen on the railroad, and the rusty engine and cars which vvei'e there 
hore many hullet holes to that effect. 

We remained in om- positions a few hundred yards heyond the 
railroad while the sun came out and tried to dry us as we lay on the 
wet ground. While here, Jerry's artillery, with its precision hut ty])i- 
cal lack of imagination, carefully searched out oiu- positions, landing 
a shell just hetween two of our guns, and passing on. A little more 
either way would have put one gun team entirely out of action. 

Again we moved forward, this time stopping in the shelter of a 
small hedge, hehind which were nests upon nests of machine ginis 
which were total wrecks, an inspiring exhihition of the thoroughness 
of the work done hy our doughhoys. Here we ate a cold lunch, con- 
sisting chiefly of canned goulash secured from the pockets of the dead 
Jerries lying around. All this time, the sun being out, fast scout aero- 
planes flew hack and forth in front of us, shooting down at the Heeing 
Cxermans. We were unahle to see the Ciermans, however, (iue to the 
nature of the country. 

In the midst of this rest word came in that Jerry was counter- 
attacking on our left, so we hustled the guns on our shoulders and 
douhle-timed over to the forward slope of a hill on our left. As soon 
as we stopjjed we scattered, each gun team picking a convenient shell- 
hole, mounting the guns, and loading up. In less time than we could 
have helieved we were ready, with a commanding view of the whole 
skyline across which the attack was coming, hut, after waiting ex- 
pectantly for something to shoot at, and seeing nothing more than a 
few skulking figures on the skyline ahead of us, which we could not 
he sure were not those of our men, we were told that the attack had 
been repulsed. Most of us. in our selfishness, really were disap])ointe{l. 
as, if Jerry had come over then, we should have had what the English 
called "a heautifid shoot," and perhaps i)ecn given an o[)p(irtniiity 
to save that portion of the line. 

After waiting there a vain half-hour, we retraced our steps to a 
sunken road on our right, and farther forward. Sunken roads are 
wonderful things, and the fact that France swarms with them is un- 
douhtedly one of the chief reasons why so many of our i)ovs are hack 
in the U. S. A. to-day. This particular road was deep enough to ren- 
der the chances of danger from shell-fii-e almost negligible. exce|)t in 
the ease of a direct hit. The day was well along when we were finally 
told that we were to remain in the road all night. So we dug ourselves 
in at the side of the road. .lust as we broke gi-ound it started i-aining 



THE COMPANY HISTORY (;•} 

and did not stop all that iii<.ht. We mounted the guns at the toj) of 
the roadside and stood giiard over them, but were not called upon to 
hre a shot. Thus ended a very eventful dav. October 1 -,th, beoinnin"- 
as It did with a barrage, the journey through St. Souplet. and endino- 
up in the rat-holes along the side of the nameless sunken road leading- 
east of St. Souplet. 

Just as dawn was breaking on October Kith, we were routed out 
of our wet holes and formed ourselves on the road, to the tune of an- 
otlier artillery barrage and smoke screen. In the midst of this we 
proceeded over the top of the roadside and in single file walked over 
the fields beyond, able to see no farther than the man in front, and 
heing forced to keep our eyes on him for fear of losing him in the mist 
and smoke. 

We reached another convenient hedge, where we halted, and ate 
an appetizing and highly-FIetchei-ized lireakfast of cheese, dates, and 
raw Dacon. 1 here was no dry wood to build a fire with, even if it had 
been advisable, m view of the ensuing smoke. The raw bacon, par- 
ticularly after a cold wet night such as we had spent, was not the most 
palatable thing we could think of at the time. We had .some coffee 
grounds, also, m the rations, so that all we needed to make coffee wis 
water, sugar, and a fire, not one of which was available. 

A ftt-r breakfast, we picked our teeth and proceeded forward 
again \\ Me rounding the corner of the hedge we had an intimate 
mtro<luct,on to whi/z-l,angs. The first one, which exjdoded right in 
tlie path ahea( of us, seemed to be a mine, for we could hear no warn- 
mg .screech. Also, its report was louder than the other kinds of sliells 
Aeedle.ss to say, we did not linger long in the vicinity, as the first was 
followed by a few others, all equally nerve-racking. We hiked -iwiy 
machine guns on our shoulders, across the open field 

C Company was with us at this time, so that ou'r two companies 
■strung out across the field, must have made a pretty target for he 
artillery. At any rate, the shelling became so he-.vy that twice during 
our march over we were fo reel to scatter and seek the shelter of the 
nany siell-hole.s. When the shelling woukl quiet <lown, we would 
esunie the march. The narrowest escape, aiul I y far the luckiest i. i 
t fo, the company .lurmg the entire day, occurred just after we 
had reassembled from a scurry to the shell-holes. A bio- shell screamed 
its way toward us and tore a big hole in the grou.ui jTi.^ f^w " d 
to our eft, and then, instead of exploding. Ricocheted off across he 
hel.l. It was a du.l. and that fact saved the lives of probably a dozen 
men m our company alone. ^ • ""'^^'i 

We reached a "road running ,,arallel to the front, which had been 
the mtantry s objective m the attack of that morning. Thi nn 
will be remembered by its twin trees placed at inteiwals of a mdre 
yards. Luckily, our officers again used their heads, and n t"ad of 
taymg near the road, which was afterward heavily shelle^l we tu 

tTl I'imer '"'"^ "" *'" '"• ^''^ °^ ''' '^^^i-*^- "^'^ Muns'n cu ; 1 



(i4 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

Hot i-ations were l)r()ii,<;lit up while we remained liere. arriving 
al)()ut three in the afternoon, when we were <)()0(1 and hungry. AN'hile 
we were taking- a "shell-hole siesta" after the meal, we were treated to 
the sight of seven German aeroplanes, flying at a moderate height, 
passing right over our heads. Instead of dropping their homhs on us, 
or sliooting at us with their maehine guns, they eahnly whizzed hy 
without seeming to take the slightest notiee of us. 'I'liis, in a way. 
hurt our pride, hut most of us were perfeetly willing to ha\e our pi-ide 
hurt rather than have them take more interest in us. 

The ])lanes, flying in formation, flew over to whei'e our iimhers 
had heen left, neai- the railroad at St. Sou])let. where they then 
di'opped their homhs. killing nine of our eoiiipany mules, hut. mii'aeu- 
lously, not even seratehing any of the men. ^leanwhile, the ^Mlied 
])lanes were gathering strength for an attaek on these daring German 
planes, hut while they were thinking ahout it the Jerries turned around 
and Hew haek over our heads and reaehed their lines in safety. 

Our imaginations now began to get husy, and we could almost 
witness the jdanes landing, handing over the picture they must have 
taken of our positions, some bearded, be-spectacled German photo- 
graph-exj)ert develojiing them, and then tele])honing to their ai'tillery 
that there was some i-uhhish at l)-a-.'}4:2() (or thereabouts) that needed 
cleaning' up. So, after sufficient time had elapsed for them to have 
finishcfl all that, we began to sniff the air to see if we coidd smell the 
aj)pi-oach of the shells which had our names and addresses engraved 
on tiiem. 

IJut they never came. An alternative position, which our officers 
considered mo\ing to, was heavily shelled shortly afterward, which 
may ha\e been one instance of where Jerry used liis imagination — 
i)ut in vain. 

Companies A and 1) came forward at this time, and fired an 
afternoon i)ari-age fi-om positions just in front of us. \N'^hile tlie 
barrage was going on we moved to new ])ositions. where we I'emained 
all that night. It was a beautiful night, witli a full moon, but fi-osty 
and cold, and the damp slits of trenches that we had to curl uj) in, 
even reinforced as they were by several Jerry overcoats and blaidvcts. 
were very cold indeed. Often it l)ecame necessary to climb out of 
the hole and run around the ])osition to i-cstore the cii-culation. 

Here was where the rum issue came in handy again, because it 
came ai'ound just aftei- dark. Doubtless if it had not been there to 
warm us u]) tlic night would have been mni'h colder, and running 
around the j)ositions moi'e fre(|ucnt. 

However, we rejoiced in the prospect of a clear and rainless day 
to follow such a clear night, but we were doomed to disappointment, 
for no sooner did it begin to get light in the east than the sky clouded 
over and a dull drizzle began to fall. 

This was October 17th. and after anotiier cold breakfast we 
moved forward — this time without a barrage — about eight hundred 
yards to the vicinity of Jone de Mer Farm, which jjlace, by the way. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 65 

was an awful siglit of debris, dead animals, dead Cxernians. and dir!: 
and neglect everywhere. 

Here we duf^' in again, niountinu- our guns on the edges of shell- 
holes, with lines of tire for defensive purposes, criss-crossing one an- 
otlier without running the risk of hitting the other guns. Here, it is 
interesting to note, our company headcjuarters, which even flattery 
would not call a decent dug-out. was in front of our gun jxisitions. 

This was om- last forward position. We remained where we were 
the rest of that day. and all that night, living between the times when 
oiu' rations put in an appearance on salvaged pumpernickel and 
canned goulash, both heated over Jerry's "Tommy's Cookers." Dur- 
ing the night there was some shelling, but this was nowhere nearly as 
objectionable as tlie rain, which started about nine o'clock and did not 
once let up until aftei- (hiybi-eak. Most of the shell-holes had. nat- 
urally, no system of drainage, and found themselves with three or 
four inches of water in them when the (hiy tinally arrived, and the 
morning was cold and damp. 

To add to the unpleasantness, just about daybreak, when Jerrvs 
infantry was at "stand-to." in anticipation of anotiier morning attack 
on oiu" jjart, Jerry's artillery put over a barrage, a great many of 
whose shells landed all around our jjositions. This, almost more than 
any other instance, gives an example of the luck which followed the 
company, because not a man in the outfit was hit by the fragments 
which spattered all around us during the barrage. 

It stopped raining shortly after breakfast-time, and we spent the 
day where we were, trying to get dry anfl at the same time keeping- 
low and out of sight of a hostile-looking church steeple l)ehind the 
German lines, which might have contained any mimber of (xci'man 
high-power field glasses. 

This day. ()ctol)er IHtli. was the longest we had ever spent, be- 
cause during the afternoon the rumor was ])assed around that we were 
to be relieved that night. Curiously enough this rumor came true, 
and the Knglish machine gunners took over our positions and anmiuni- 
tion after dark. 

We marched back along the way we had come over the fields, 
with light hearts but heavy mud-soaked feet, and arrived at Kscau- 
fourt, where we had tired our barrage, early in the morning of October 
15th, four long days before. We were assigned to billets here, and, 
after another rum ration, served in the dark, we turned in and slept. 
Tile kitchen joined us here, and had a good breakfast for us, and we 
built a big tire by means of which we managed to dry out most of our 
clothes. 

In the early forenoon we started l)ack once more, through Bu- 
.signy and back to the hollow at I^a Sal)liere Woods, our old stamping 
ground where we had stai'ted from six days before. 

We stayed at the hollow that night, and early the next morning 
(October 20th) struck our tents and said good-bye to it forever, 
although we did not realize it. It was a long hike which followed, 



c,c> 



TIIK CO.MPANY HISTORY 



back to Xauroy, situated in the heart of the IIin(lenl)ur^' I.iiic, which 
we reached just before dark. l)ut in time to secure wliat billets there 
were. There were very few houses left standing- at Nain-oy. and the 
best billets found ])roved to be cellars. 

We hiked a^ain from Nain"o\' on October 21st back as far as 
^Nlanjuaix. which Mas near Tincoiu't, our first stoppin<^- ])lace in that 
part of the country. We spent one rainless nujonlit ni<4ht at Mar- 
(juaix. at Avhich time the crosses which had been made by the mechanics 
at Huire to mark the three graves of the boys that were killed, and 
which liad been taking up space in the liml)ers ever since, were taken 
to Saulcourt, where they now mark the graves of Ferdie, Goldie and 
George. 

The next day, October 22nd, we marched to Tincourt. and en- 
trained for the back areas. Shortly after our train had left, a delayed 
mine exploded under the roadbed near Koisel, and delayed the rest 
of the division. 

We disembarked at Villers-Bretonneux. of historic fame, and in 
the gathering darkness arrived at Vaire, a small (piict town on the 
Somme canal, four kilometres from Corbie. We arrived there in the 
middle of the night, and proceeded to make ourselves at home in the 
wreck of a once-])rou(i dwelling of a well-to-do French countrvman. 





CHAPTER NINE 

THE ARMISTICE SIGNED 
From Vaire to Connerre 



1{()M a i-athei- disagreeable and totally unfit place to rest 
in. as were our first impressions. A^aire turned out to he 
just the opjiosite. The month we spent there was the 
happiest we had known in France. Doubtless the sign- 
ing of the armistice, which took place while we were 
there, had a great deal to do with our enjoyment of our 
surroundings, but nevertheless we were allowed a freedom in Vaire 
which was unsurpassed by any town we stayed at. We lost no time 
in making ourselves as comfortable as possible. Salvaging was a 
comparatively easy matter, provided it was done (juickly. as A^aire 
had been under shell-fire. It was situated just l)eyond the line of the 
great German advance in the spring. In fact, the town of Hamel, 
distant two kilometres to the east, had been occupied by the Huns. 
From their positions at Hamel the Germans had shelled Vaire. until 
there was no sign of intact window glass to be found. Not only that, 
but the buildings were sufficiently demolished to make salvaging more 
simple. Above all. however, the village was comparativelv unin- 
habited bv civilians. Beds, made of chicken wire and Ijoards. beiian 
to make their appearance out of unused cellars, and chairs were 
eagerly gathered to ones ])articular room of the house. A few, being 
dissatisfied with the house jn-oper. skirmished around and found em^jtv 
rooms in nearby dwellings, which, with a lot of hard work, they man- 
aged to fix up very comfortably. 

Passes were necessary to visit Amiens, as there were many JM. P.s 
lurking around with wide-open arms, as three of the outfit found to 
their disadvantage. Unfortunately, not one of the three men involved 
had ever been an inmate of Blackwell's Island or Sing Sing (as far 
as we know), or else we should be able to print here an unbiased com- 
parison of French and American jugs. 

Division IIead(|uarters were stationed at Corbie, distant a nice 
walk along the beautiful canal of the Sonune. Consequently we were 
able to visit the Division Show there, as well as to buy lots of necessi- 
ties in the line of food. 

Leaves to St. Malo and England were given out for the first time 
while we were at A^aire. 

67 



08 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

One of tlu- best things aliout Yaii'e. however, was tlie ahundaiiee 
of firewood. The iiiohts luid he<iiin to ^et ehilly. and without windows 
this would have been very inueh more notieeahle witliout the ehanees 
of ha\iii.t>- a i>do<l iir-e in eaeh room. IIowe\er. the faet that our hghts 
eould not easily lune been seen from hostile aeroplanes, beeause of the 
i-oofs of the houses, made the evenin^ys eozy and lon,t>'. Oin- means 
of ilhnm'natioii was candles, but often tlie ordy iin'ht we had was that 
of the tire. Tlie eompany didn't do a thin«>' to a hui^e pile of em])ty 
Kni^-lish ammunition boxes near the billet. Ai the rate they were 
consumed it is pei-haps lueky that we did not i-emain at \'aire any 
lon>>er tiian we diil. oi' else we should ha\e had to use some of the 
houses themselves for firewood. 

Drills were not too streiuious at Vaire. Often the eompany would 
.i^-o out for a hike, either throu<>h Ilamel. to search amon<>- the ruins, 
or alon^' the canal. We understood that tlieix- had been an elaborate 
schedule for our drilling-, but many a "])hysical exercise" drill, or 
"judging distance" exercise, or "rough ground" work, was construed 
to have been included in our hike. Near Ilamel was a broad level field 
which the English had used as a soccei- field, and on it we had some 
fine games of soccer, chiefly inter-platoon, though there were a few 
games between the ancient rivals, the privates and the non-com's. 

There was very little celebration at "N'aire on Armistice Day. 
There were so few civilians in town, and even these were so stunned 
with the almost unbelievable news, and there was no chance of buyhig 
champagne or wine without going all the way to Amiens and lugging 
it back, so that most of us merely breatlied a sigh of relief, asked our- 
selves when we wei'e going home, and went to bed. 

There had been more excitement the night the Kaiser was re- 
ported to have abdicated. The news came over the wire after dark, 
and Joe IIoj)kins found an old unused bugle and blew a snappy First 
Call — the first, by the way, that we had heard in months — and every- 
body came scurrving over to the head(juarters billet, expecting to see 
a fire, tight, or a building caving in. Hut instead Stu Ro.se read the 
wonderful news to the ci-owd by the light of a lamp, and. after a cheer, 
we went back to our billets again, wondering if it were really true, 
and, if so. what it would mean. 

The armistice came along just as we should have otherwise been 
on our way to the front again, and while we eould not heljj feeling 
thankful, mo.st of us would have been anxious to go up again for a 
.ook around, and to come back loaded with desirable souvenirs. 

From the time the armistice was signed most of our thoughts were 
centered around one vital (juestion. which was. "When do we go 
honied" and the rumors which Hoated in the company and were i)assed 
from one to another between that time and the time we finally did go 
home, late in February, would have, if printed, made volumes. 

We remained at Vaire until November 2()th. just before Thanks- 
giving Dav. taking ke'>n delight in keeping unshielded lights going 
late at night, and wondering whether we were going to parade in 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



69 



Eiiuland or on Fiftli Avenue on t'ln-istnias Day. Also, there was a 
clia'nee of our lieiiin- deeorated by the King", though for what was not 

specified. , , . 

We (hd parade one day. however. l)efore leaviui-- ^'aire. on a held 
near Corbie, wiiere tlie entire (hvision was reviewed by :\Iajor General 
O'Rvan. The review was held on a Sunday, in nieinoriain of the 
division's casualties. This was the hrst review of the division as a 
unit since the time Field ^Marshal Haig reviewed us. early in June. 

On November 26th we entrained at Corbie, takiiin firewood and 
rations along to ])rovide against what we were told would be a terrible 
trip of three days. To our surprise, however, the trip turned out to 
be neither terrible nor long. 

We alighted at Comierre. near Le.Mans, and on the main road 
from Paris to Brest. A\'e were told that it was the Embarkation Area, 
and that an\- dav wc iiii(/Iit receive orders to pack u]) and hustle for 
the U. S. A. 




CHAPTER TEN 



THE WAR AT CONNERRE 




KFOKE, le:iviii<>- Vaire. we liad turned in to the British 
(Tovernment all our machine f>uns, together with aninuini- 
tion and other e(|ui])nient. so that we arrived at Connerre 
with nothing liut the empty limhers and nudes. There had 
also heen a lot of other Knglish ecjuipnieiit issued to us 
at \'aire, sueli as "Jerkin, leather, one." and mufflers and 
sweaters, hut when we were shipped south all had to he gathered to- 
gether and turned in. which gave the supply sergeant something else 
to want to get home for. 

\"ery ])ossil)ly if we liad known hefoi-ehand just how long, or 
even approximately how long, we were to remain at Connerre. we 
should have had a nuich l)etter time there than we did. As things 
were, the most sanguine among us hoped for an early departure to 
the States. But. even with their hopes, the soldier-characteristic of 
making oneself comfortahle in s])ite of the surroundings made many 
of us seek private hillets. with real heds. occasionally clean sheets, and 
a solid roof overhead. It was an awfully difficult task to roll out in 
the early morning and hurry around to heat the Topper's whistle at 
Reveille, as there was always the chance of its looking too nuicli like 
rain. The good old clock in front of the Hotel de Ville, however, 
saved more than a few of us from indefinite K. 1*. hv losing ahout five 
minutes regularly each night. The food served hy the kitchen was 
good although most of us preferred the English rations we had heen 
in the hahit of getting. Here, however, there was no longer the help- 
less dependence upon the cooks, unless one was hroke. 

Much consternation was caused one day hv the issue of hi-aiid- 
new American ^'ickers machine guns, with all their incidentals, all 
nicely clogged up with cosmoline. It couldn't he that they would 
issue all that stuff to an outfit almost on its wa\' home! The guns were 
not touched for some days, however, hut the wooden amnuinition hoxes 
were used, hut only to hold the mess-kits of the men standing around 
eating. Finally we were ordered to clean the guns up and get readv foi- 
drill. This done, we proceeded to lug them up the hill to a field where 
instruction in gun drill, fusee s])rings. lock spi-ings, crank handles, 
rollers, etc., was to hegin all over again. I.,uckily, however, hefore we 
could get really started, it commenced to rain, and the guns were put 
away and left in their cases from that time on until the time came for 



70 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 71 

turning- them in, wlien they were again packed in cosnioline. Truly, 
it was a great army at that time! 

lint a cliange came. We got a new Major assigned to us — ^Nlajor 
Nathaniel H. Egleston — and Major Egleston's ideas were not en- 
tirely in conformity with the sort of discipline we had been having. 
In fact, he laid down, and enforced, regular periods of drilling, train- 
ing and exercise for each comj^any in the battalion, and brave indeed 
was the company officer who suggested a slight relaxation for the men. 

]Major Egleston will remain, in name, forever associated with the 
two fields near Connerre which bear his name (unofficially, of course). 
The first, or Egleston Field No. 1, was situated on the Paris road a 
short distance uj) tiie hill from the town, and was a plowed field, the 
furrows running north and south, which made it excellent for holding- 
Saturday morning inspections. The second and more important. 
Egleston Field No. '1, -was about three miles away, across the railroad, 
and on its wide expanse we jicrformed many wonderful double-times 
with full })acks, both for rehearsals and for the real inspections. 

The trouble seemed to be that there was to be a comj)ctitive in- 
spection, by battalions, of the entire army corps, and some incautious 
person had informed the Major to that effect. Accordingly, we had 
to get oiu" wet laundry from the Frenchwoman who had just finished 
beating it with a ping-pong racket on a rock by the river, and roll it in 
our packs. This was ordered so that we might have everything ready 
for an embarkation inspection, should a showdown become necessary. 
In those days, the word "embarkation"" had a magical eflfect on our 
spirits, and we promptly obeyed the order. Most of the trips to 
Egleston Field No. 2 were failures, from the viewpoint of unrolling 
our packs and spreading out ecpiipment. until we began to get careless, 
and leave out certain heavy and unseen parts of the jKick. One day, 
however, we were caught by Brig-adier-Cxeneral Pierce, and had a 
showdown when we least expected it. Thei-e Avas much borrowing 
and last-minute cleaning of mess kits with the sand while the General 
ins])ected 1) Company, and, thanks to the help of the color guard, who 
were B Company men, we were able to get by. 

This competitive inspection idea did not arouse much enthusiasm 
in the men. If they wanted to know, we argued, who the best battalion 
in the army was, we woidd have admitted it readily enough, and saved 
all the bother of rehearsing, saluting the trees where the General's 
spirit hovered, and trying to "Rest" while standing with an embarka- 
tion pack on our backs. 

Our best drill jjeriods were in the afternoons, when avc usually 
])layed baseball. Or, even in the morning drill period, frecpiently we 
would be taken for a long walk through the beautiful hills around 
Connerre. Connerre itself was dull enough until we got used to it, 
and by becoming used to it we ourselves became dull. When we first 
arri\ed there the great events in the life of the average Conneranian 
were the arrival of the St. Calais single-track train in the afternoon, 
the heavy silence when the clock in the church tower stopjjed. the daily 



72 THE COMPANY HlSrOKV 

funeral profession up the liill to tlie eenietery. or tlie AVednesday 
inorniu^- markets in the Phiee. We, however, niaiia<^e(l to add a few 
novelties, such as the oi)enin^- of the V. ^1. C. A. window eaeh day hy 
our dear old friend. iNlr. Yerkes. 

Speakin<4' of _iMr. Yei-kes I'eniinds us of tlie Christmas entertain- 
ment, lentil Chi'istmas day we had seen no snow in Fi'anee. hut in 
the morning' of that day the snow l)e<>an to fall, possibly just to let 
us know that it was really Christmas. It snowed for an lioui- or so 
and then stopped, hut this did not dim our spirits any. Prejjaiatioiis. 
under the ahle leadership of Dave (lately, foi' a wonderful celebra- 
tion dinner were beiny' made on a lar<>e scale, 'i'he bunks of the men 
sleejjinj; in the lar^e billet on the corner of the line de la Jatterie and 
the IJonlevard 3Iareeau (im])osinn- names, wei-e they not ^vere 
moved up to the loft or around the corner — anywhere, in fact, to be 
out of the way. The committee went to work. Gus Sulzer entered 
the spotlight by installint;' electric lights in the hitherto dark and 
gloomy bai'u. Boards were obtained from somewhere and made into 
tables and benches lar<>e enoug'h to seat the entire company. And, 
last but not least, the food was roast jjork, with all its incidentals, 
cooked by l{o<)er Greenhal^h, liill Down and Fred Johnson at their 
best. Chief among' the incidentals were some home-made ap])le dump- 
lings, made by Jack Faniion. 

The bunch were nearly starved, waiting until three in the after- 
noon for the festivities to commence, but once they were allowed inside 
to .see what the transformed barn looked like, everyone forgot his trou- 
bles. A mimber of the fellows had volunteered as waiters, so that 
there was not much confusion. In fact, the chief noise to be heard 
after the XXX Hennessey had proclaimed the dinner officially in 
progress was the usual noise of a gang of hungry soldiers eating army- 
fashion. Cigars were included on the menus which Jack Kenny 
laboriously ])rinted out by hand, but which nobody ever got, so that, 
after liill Down had cried "Come on, you seconds!" until they stopped 
coming, we settled back on the benches, loosened our belts, and asked 
what was next. 

Of eoui'se. the next order of the day was speeches, accompanied 
i)y cheers. All the officers made speeches, from blushing liaddy to 
"Petite" Selbv. and e\en Scotty York became so excited that he 
spouted some of his ])oems, and then had remorse for being so brazen. 
Everything was cheered, including the army, the cooks, the 'I'op Ser- 
geant (actually), the food, the place, and. in fact, eveiybody and 
everything, with the |)ossil)le exce])tion of the Major. 

^^'hen the smoke was at its thickest in the barn, somebody decided 
that we ought to have a minstrel show that evening, so the barn was 
cleared and the rehearsal commenced. 

At seven-thirty the dcjors wei'e opened again and in crowded all 
the company and a lot of curious civilians. The cooks made them- 
selves fore\er famous i)y mixing a huge can of wonderful punch that 
looked like red wine, but might ha\e had almost everything in it. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 73 

Music was furnished by Austin I.ealiy and ^lort Clark on a liired 
piano and a IxJiTowfd violin, and the minstrel show, with its impro- 
vised footlights and dirt (and dirty) floor, was a huge success. Jimmie 
Lynch saved the show from becoming too dull to everybody but the 
actors by giving out a "few prizes" whenever tliere came a lull in dia- 
logues. One of the best jokes occurred when the entire cast and 
chorus rose in their seats and demanded more punch — and got it! The 
climax of the whole show was when Mr. Yerkes was presented with his 
souvenir. 

It was a mistake to ])rolong the show as long as was done, as. if 
the performance had stop])ed at the end of the fii-st act, everyliody 
would have been hapjjy. Instead, the second act. which was more in 
the nature of high-class extemporaneous vaudeville, began to l)e a 
bore, until Eugler Brown saved the show by "singing a few parodies." 
We called it a day. 

The celebration of the conn'ng of the new year on Xew Year's 
Kve was performed in the same general manner by the great ma- 
jority of the men in the company — only they got it at different places. 
There was no reveille the next morning, and practically no breakfast — 
nor desire for any. Cieneral OKyan had called a reception for the 
officers of the division, but some of the officers remembered another 
previous engagement. 

From the first of the year until .lanuary Ulst very little of note 
happened to disturb our usual (juiet life at Connerre. Open-air 
movies were shown in the ])ublic scpiare by covu'tesy of the Y. ^I. C. A., 
but the nights were almost too cold and our billets too cozy to attend 
very many of the shows. On January "21st, however, we marched to 
the Belgian Camp, about ten kilometres on the road to Le ^Nlans, and 
stayed in the cold, dirty barracks there overnight. It rained hard dur- 
ing the night, and when we awoke in the morning we found ourselves 
almost marooned, with each barracks surrounded by water. 

After lunch we were marched to a large field near the camp, 
there to be reviewed by Cxcneral Pershing, as a division. On the march 
to the field a rehearsal for the proper method of coming into line when 
passing the (xeneral was staged on a very wet field. Most of us had 
to (loublc-tinic in four or tive inches of water. 

However, we were assigned to our portion of the field, and re- 
mained where we were put from one o'clock until four, without mov- 
ing a stej), and with inter\'als for rests. The longest standing at 
tention occurred when the General decorated the heroes of the di- 
vision. Possibly a large |)art of oiu' restlessness was due to the fact 
that no one in our battalion was on the decoration list. When we 
finally did pass in re^'iew, it was with stiff legs and necks and nerveless 
feet. By far the best part of the review, next to the close view of the 
General himself, was the playing of the massed bands of the division, 
which made itself heai-d very distinctly over the entire field. 

We remained at the Belgian camp again that night, and hiked 




.11 SI' IX TIME FOR Till'. WIIISTI.K 



back to C'oiinerrt' at a very rapid pace the next day, in a li^iit snow, 
hut heavy ])aeks. 

iVt ahoiit tliis time tiie daily inspeetions for cooties, etc., began to 
be hekl, which <)a\'e us another tlirill about leaving? for home. And 
then, too. oui- l)kud<ets were taken away and dekuised. which made 
some of us believe almost anything. 

Early in February a Y. M. C. A. secretary by the name of Hab- 
cock, who had an appetite even greater than a certain one of our 
officers, took charge of our amusements, and he soon i)roved himself 
to be a live wire. He hired, renovated, and installed a canteen in a 
barn on the Rue de Paris, half way uj) the hill. Not content with that, 
he had several stoves installed, so that we could go in there on cold 
days and keep warm when coal and wood began to be scarce. He had 
electric lighting ])ut in and a stage erected. Every evening the hall 
was crowded, for there was always some special feature going on, 
either movies, boxing bouts, or the like. And then, when the weather 
became a little more jdeasaiit. he had a basketball court i)uilt in l)ack 
of the hut, and many inter-company games were played theie, much 
to the worry of the non-com's in charge of (piarters, whose duty it was 
to get the men together for cootie inspection. 

In fact, just as things were riimiing smoothly for our comfort, 
we moved, and on the morning of Fel)ruary 2.'Jrd we said good-bye to 
all our newly-made friends among the French townspeople, paid our 
I)ills, and took the afternoon train from Connerre station. 

The three months we spent at Connerre will be looked back upon 



74 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 7.-, 

It\- almost all of us with a pleasant sigh. There were trials of temper 
and of patience: there were times when we were ready to desert: there 
were times when it seemed as if there could he no excuse for the" hard- 
ships that we were undergoing-. But most of those times, under the 
gloss of time, are already half-forgotten, and the readv memory 
merely skips them over, to think of more pleasant things, such as the 
trips to Paris (via Le Mans) , the baseball games, the good Ion.' sleeps, 
or, perhaj)s. Cecile's back room. ' - t ' 

Our journey to Brest was rather uneventful, if more comfortable 
than other train rides. We were housed in the American-made eight- 
wheeled freight cars, which made riding far easier, even if the allotted 
space per capita was the same as in the smaller French cars. And 
there was the thought that we were finally started on the road that 
led to New York to take away our weariness. Before the train pulled 
out the Y. M. C. A. handed us coffee, soup, cocoa, cakes, chocolates 
cigarettes and all sorts of things to keep us from getting hunurv 
enough to take a chance on Corned Willy. Most of the privates had 
very tew cigarettes, on account of their martyrdom to pride. The 
non-com's, it seemed, got a share of surplus "Camels. making them 
get ten ])acks while the privates only received six, since there were not 
enough packs left over, giving each man six. to supply everyone with 
another pack. .Much needless hard feeling resulted, which ' however 
was luckily soon forgotten. Will Boatright. by the way went on' 
reconi tor saying. " 'T'aint right! I bought six packs and turned 
them 111, too." 

We detrained at Brest on the morning of February 2ith in the 
ram. eagerly eyeing a large transport lying at anchor in the harbor 
U lid c-(>njectures were made that we were to be marched right on 
board, but these were merely wild conjectures, as things turned out 
U e were destined to go through a lot before we stepped on board 
iMi-st ot all. we marched along, after seemingly endless waitin.v uii- 
slimg our packs, grabbed our mess kits, and had a good meal of hot 
stew which made us all feel better. After the meal we again fell in 
and hiked up the long hill through Brest, and on and on over the 
niuddy road. 111 the ram. with wet overcoats and profane thouohts 
imtii we reached the far end of the huge camp three miles inland ""'We 
were installed 111 pyramidal U. S. Army tents, surrounded by duck- 
hoards and mud. but with stoves and wooden floors in them ' 





CHAPTER ELEVEN 

HOME AGAIN 



jIIK iK-xt iii()niin,i>', Fehniarv 2.). 1919, iiiiu- iiioiitlis to tlic 
(lay from the time wt- first entered the I'oiitaiie/eii Hai'- 
raeks. we marelied to these ohl Xapoleoiiie hiiihliii,i>s wliieli 
are so well known to the majoi-ity of the A. K. F.. and 
were rnshed throu<)h a hody inspeetion. The eani]) was 
erowded with easnals waiting to he shii)])ed home, and in 
the eyes of all these men we l)eeame oi))eets of envy heeanse we were 
to l)e shipped home as a di\ision i)efoi'e they eonld start. 

We remained in the tents for a few days, gdin.y throngh varions 
show-down inspeetions. t>ettin^' our French money e.\ehani>ed. and 
eating huge, well-eooked meals at Kitchen Xo. 14. and then we were 
moved to what was called the "Ready Camp." This consisted of long, 
clean, dry harracks, with douhle-tiei- hunks, which were very comfoi't- 
ahle. The name "Heady Camp" had a pai'ticulai'ly pleasing sound to 
our eager eai's. hut it \\as not until after \\e had hecome settled there 
that we learned the real interpi-etation of the term "licady." Instead 
of meaning that the occupants were ready to he sjiipped iiome. it 
really signified that the inmates must he "IJeady" at all times to go on 
fatigue, all-night kitchen ])oliee. oi- any other little thing the fei-tile 
hrains of the S. (). S. otlicei's could invent. Not only was this a l)low. 
hut at this new camp we had to eat at ivitchen \o. o, and the excellence 
of Xo. 14- had sjioiled us for the trash served at Xo. ."). Consecjuently. 
after a fi'W sample meals at X"o. .), most of us put on slii'kers and 
picked on tiie prize-winning kitchens to ha\t' the iionoi' of sc!'\ing us. 
These were usually Xos. 8, 11, and 14. 

While at the Ready Camp we wei'e given another hody inspec- 
tion. We had all gone a full week of woi'king in the mud without 
bathing, and there was great feai- that the I'csult of this second inspec- 
tion would he sei'ious enough to detain us another \\eek or so, until we 
could get a hath. 

Hut nothing lasts foi'cxei', and just as we were resigning our- 
selves to the fact that Division lleatkpiarters had forgotten that tliC 
KXith Machine (inn Hattalion had not sailed for Ilohoken we received 
orders to pack u]) and lea\e. .So we got up early on the morning of 
^larch .")tli and marched hack down the long hill, again in the rain, and 
took the lighter foi- the hattleshij) "Missouri." When the hattalion 
had hecn put on hoard, and the men all assigned to their ri'spet'tixe 

76 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 77 

liaiiiiiiocks. the aiiflior was weighed and we steamed out of the harbor 
ju.st as iii<>ht was t'alhn,i>' on ]March otli. The shores of France van- 
ished from sif^ht behind us in the gathering dusk, and with mingled 
thoughts we said farewell to the many pleasant and unjjleasant ex- 
periences we liad had during the nine months of our stay there. For 
some the war had meant wounds and the loss of dear friends: for 
others the war had not left its mark, physically; and there were still 
others to whom their clean, healthy experience of doing a man's job 
had given a broader outlook on life and firm resolutions to contuiue 
doing that man's job when they got back to America. Almost all of 
us had become bettei- men for the experiences we had gone through at 
the cost of self-denial and self-sacritice. And all of us brought back 
with us many firm and lasting friendships of the kind which nothing 
but constant conu-adeshij) and association with a common purpose 
could possil)ly have cemented. 

The day-times of oin* trip home on the battleship were by far the 
best ])art of the trijj. At night, the close (piarters of the hammocks, 
the foul air. relieved somewhat by the ventilators, and the lack of space 
to properly turn in our bunks during the night, made the approach 
of day rather welcome. Yet it was with a growl and a gr\imble that 
we heard the four bells sti'ike at six o'clock. This meant "Heave out," 
and "Hit the deck." and hoist uj) the hammocks to their hooks so that 
the tables could be laid out for breakfast. Those who were lucky 
enough not to be on K. P. or other fatigue — chosen l)y compart- 
ments — immediately went up on deck and stayed there all day, com- 
ing down below for meals otdy. In fact, lounging around below decks 
during the day was forbidden, even on rainy days. The wonders of 
the battleship, the guns, turrets and engines, soon ceased to be a nov- 
elty, and books were in great demand. Those working below had more 
to do to occupy their time, but far worse air to work in. The chief 
diversion during the day was to look at the chart of the ships progress, 
which was published after lunch. The sailors' band, which played 
three or four times a day. and the canteen kept us fi'om getting too 
lonesome for something to do, but the old battleship plowed its way 
along at a speed which was far too slow for most of us. Toward the 
lattei- part of the trip open-air movies were shown on the (juarter-deck 
aft in the evenings, one party being liastily interrupted by a few stray 
waves washing over the low deck. English drill was performed some 
of the clearer days on the quarter-deck, much to the delight of the 
sailors. These sailors, by the way, were in direct contrast to those 
who escorted us over f)n the "Antigone." and were a tine set of men. 
One sunshiny afternoon a series of sporting games and boxing bouts 
was run off under the direction of one of the warrant officers on the 
i'orward deck. 

Tuesday, March 18. I'Jl'J, turned out to be a foggv and rainv 
morning, so foggy, indeed, that when we jjassed the lightship all we 
could see was the to]) of her masts and the steam which escaped every 
time her fog liorn blew. The rain, however, cleared awav just as we 








::;:r:jr:';::;.:Ti:;;. . ":.i^s::*^:T:-ss: J 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 79 

entered the harbor. ^Vhen we heliehl the faiiiihar 8i<rlits of Barren 
Iskiid. Sandy Hook. Coney Island, and the Athuitie Highknds, 
everyone was perched on deck so as not to miss anything. A small 
tug. the "J. Hooker Hainmersley." chartered by the friends of our 
Rochester hoys, was the first to come out to meet us, and she circled 
all around us as we lay at anchor in the harbor. Then out came the 
two otticial tugs, the "Patrol" and the "Correction," with flags flying 
and the band playing and the gunwales crowded with friends straining 
their eyes to get a glimpse of us. iMany signs were held up with names 
printed on them. JJoth boats passed alongside, one on each side, and 
then turned when astern of us. so as to again pass alongside at a lesser 
distance. As they were tm-ning, however, someone started up om- 
engines and the two tugs were left far astern as we steamed up into 
the Hudson River, past the Statue of Liberty, past the Battery with 
its tall l)uildings, and up the river to Pier 1, Hoboken, where we 
docked. 

Before we were ready to diseml)ark, however, the Mayor's Com- 
mittee of Welcome boats caught up with us, but oidy the "Patrol" 
was small enough to creep up beside us as we lay moored to the pier, 
while the more crowded "Correction" had to lay off outside and strain 
its eyes. It was a (lisaj)pointment tV)r the friends of our boys, particu- 
larly as those on the tugs had been on them since early morning, 
through the rain, cruising up and down the harbor trying to pick us up. 

We walked across the gangplank and put oiu" feet on United 
States soil again with a feeling nnich like that of an actor who has just 
made his first appearance on the stage, secured a round of ap])lause, 
and has just returned home in time to light his tire and put his feet 
in comfortable slijjpers once more. All kinds of canteen workers then 
passed along as we stood in formation, giving out everything in the 
line of refreshments and postal cards. We then embarked, j)ast a 
movie-camera, on a ferry which took us to Weehawken, where we were 
met by friends on foot. We took the train from \Veehawken to Tena- 
fly and then mai-ched to Camp Merritt. All along the march through 
the town we comj^ai-ed this liike to others we had made in France, 
almost stumbled every time we would pass pretty American girls, 
and wondered what we were going to have for sup])er, and if so, who 
would be picked to be on K. P. Another chief worry on our part was 
concerned with how soon we were going to get jiasses, and for how 
long they would be. 

That evening, after we had had oiu" supper, which, by the way, 
was a good one, we were deloused. and our uniforms were returned 
to us looking as if they would have stood more chance of fitting a 
jellyfish than a stalwart returned hero. The next day passes were 
given out. The men living up-State were given seventy-two hour 
pas!?es, while the New Yorkers got twenty-four or foi-ty-eight. 

On Sunday. ^larch 2.Srd, we jjacked up and left Camp JNIerritt 
for the Armory in Hrooklyn. arriving there late in the afternoon amid 
a warm reception all along the line. 



so THE C'OMPAW HISroUY 

We paraded in Bi-ooklyii. \\itli oveiroats and \veai-iii,u,' steel hel- 
mets, on ^fonday, Mareli 24th. and the t'ullow iii,u day. Maieh 2.')th. 
was the day of the fainons jnu-ade of the 'iTth Division up Fifth 
Avenue. 

We had to report at the Armory at .):.'}() A. M., hut luekily. we 
started from there miiuis the hated overeoats. as it yave i)romise of 
heeomino- a wai-m day. And a fortunate thini>- it was that we left the 
overeoats hehind. as some of our luimher would undouhtedly lia\e 
heen left hehind lyin^y on the Avenue. The erowds wei'e so .i>reat. hcinu' 
the first parade of a division of the A. E. F. in New York, that at man\ 
plaees they overflowed the eurhs and we were foived to mareh in 
eolumn of scpiads at various points and then to tlouble-time to eateh 
up and avoid leaving any .yaps in the parade. These douhle-tinies did 
away with the periods allotted to us for fi^e-minute rests, so that, from 
the time we left Tenth Street we did not stojj until we reaehed 114th. 
marehing at attention the entire distanee. with the perspiration \nmv- 
ing down oui- faees and our tin hats boring holes in our heads. The 
ehief thing whieh made all of us keep going was not diseipline. i)ut 
the prospeet of seeing our families and friends at l()4th Street, in the 
grand-stand thei-e. \N'hen we passed that point the ovation was truly 
wonderfid. Hut. after we had passed, the ])arade was over as far as we 
were eoneerned. However. General O'Kyaii i-eviewed our tottering 
figures at llOth Street. 

The arrangements for the parade had been very well ])lamied. as 
we had no trouble in getting down-town and to Brooklyn again ^•ery 
(juiekly. Arriving baek at the Armory onee more, tired and dusty, 
we were informed that those wishing to do so were invited to attend 
a dinner at the Metro{)olitan Fife Insuranee Building at .5:30. As it 
was then .") o'eloek most of us went home. 

It may be safely said without fear of eontradietion that the elimax 
of the eareer of Comi)any B was reaehed when the eom])any passed 
the stand at 104th Street on JNIareh •i.jth. All througli its existenee 
it had been working to eneompass just those ideals whieh our friends 
iiailed in us. After passing that point, however. Company B prae- 
tieally eeased to exist, exeept in the minds of its members. 

()n ^Mai'eh 'idth. the next day. we asseml)le(l at the iVrmory onee 
moi-e and entrained for Camp F[)ton to await diseharge. The week 
we s])ent at Fpton. waiting impatiently foi' permission to go home, 
and foi'gotten by almost e\eryone, was a miserable one. Camp ^ler- 
ritt had been a xei'itable paradise — if any army eamj) ean be termed 
sueh — having all the faeilities for eomfortable li\ ing, with its eafeteria, 
i)arber shop, and easy eommunieation with Xew York. U])ton. how- 
evei-. was as elieerless as Meri'itt had been homelike. Too far fi-om 
\ew York to get thei"e easily, cold, wind-swept, and with its ultra- 
poor mess, it brought us baek to earth with a jolt. Perhaps the bliz- 
zard we had while there heli)ed to try oui- ])atienee. but eei'tain it was 
that the Aveek was a long one. 

One bright spot of om- life at Camp Fpton was the faet that a 



THE COMPANY IHSTOKV 



81 



special pass was secured for iiuist of us to go to Brooklyn and attend 
the dance (i'iven at the Elks' Club on Saturday, 3Iarch -JUth. by the 
Junioi- Women's Auxihary of Company B. The dance was a huge 
success, and all the credit thei-efor was 'due to the girls Avho worked 
so hard to make us have a good time. They were aided in their efforts 
by the tact that we could liave had a good time anywhere, once out of 
Camp (7i)ton. i)ut, even without this assistance, they made us enjov 
ourselves to the limit. For many of them the hardest work was that 
of dancing with us. Supper was served, and we went to our respective 
homes feeling much refreshed at the bi-eak in the monotonv of exist- 
ence at Upton and with a renewed confidence that we had not been 
forgotten. However, we took the Sunday train back again the next 
mortn'ng. 

Wednesday. April -Jiid. lid'.), was the big day, when we were 
handed, aftei- houi's and houi-s of waiting until the paymaster recov- 
ei-ed our lost payrolls, oin- long dreamed-of dischai'ges." with the sixty 
dollars bonus. After a long train ride we pulled into the Flatbush 
Aveiuie station of the Long Island Railroad— free men at last. 

The war was vii-tually finished, and we had done our share to 
l)rmg it to a successful finish, at a cost, great though it was, compara- 
ti\ely small. It was oui- good fortune to return home with nearly the 
same men who had left home together in the dark days of ]i)17. " Our 
casualties wl-vv constantly in our thoughts, and our Only regret was 
that they could not have been with us to enjoy the wond'erfuT feeling 
of home-coming. Our comforting thought' regarding the three boy's 
who sleep in the little Saulcourt Cemetery and the others el 
Mas, and is — that thev did not die in vain. 



sewhere 




COMPANY STATISTICS 

COMPANY B, 106TH MACHINE GUN BATTALION, 27rH 

DIVISION, 11. S. A. 

Or^-anized at S])artaiil)iir<4-. S. C. (ramp Wadsworth), October 17. 

1917. 
Sailed for France from Newport News, "Slay ](), i;»18, on U. S. S. 

"Aiitii^oiic." 
Arrived at lirest. France, ^lav 2.5, VJIH. 
Left France (Brest), Mardi .5, 1919. 
Arrived New York. >Lircli 18. 1919. 
Demol)ilized at Cami) Upton. N. Y., April 2. 1919. 
Time spent in France: 9 months. 8 days. 
Time spent in France before the armistice: ."> months. 17 davs. 

B ATTLKS : 

Hindenbur<»' I^ine, September 29, 1918. 
Jonc de Mer Bid^e, ()ctol>er 18, 1918. 
Le Selle Biver, October 17, 1918. 

Skiumishes and Kxi'KDirioxs: 

Knoll — Qnellemont Farm, September 27, 1918. 

St. Manrice Biver, October 19, 1918. 

East Pojjeringhe Line, Jnly 9, 1918, to .Vnoust 20, 1918. 

Dickiebnsch Sector, August 22, 1918, to August 30, 1918. 

C'asi'ai.tiks: 

Killed ill miction: 

Hardgrove, (Goldsmith IL, killed in action September 2(), 1918, 
at 11 :30 P. M., at Hindenburg Line. He Mas buried in the 
Sanlcourt Cemetery, aftei- burial service read l)v C'liaplain 
C. K. Towle. B. E.F. 

Staudenmayer. (ieorge .T. F.. killed in action Sei)tend)er 2(1. 1918. 
at ll:;io 1'. AL. at Hindenburg Line. Buried at Sanlcourt 
Cemetery. 

Frerichs. Ferdinand .L. killed in action on the moi-niiig of Sep- 
tember 27. 1918, at about (i A. ^L, at Hindenbiu-g l^ine. 
liuricd at Sanlcourt Uemeterv. 

Died ill France: 

Ford, .James V., died at a British Base Hospital from pneumonia 
about October 18. 1918. 

82 



THE COINIPANY HISTORY 



83 



Weed. Frank W. E.. died at a British Base Hospital from pneu- 
monia about ()ctol)er 19, 1918. 

Schafer, Jacob J., died at a British Base Hospital from jineu- 
monia about October •22. 1918. 

Wounded or Gassed: 

Byrne. Thomas E.. wounded at Hindenl)ur^' Line, Septeml)er 21, 

1918. 
Collins. Herbert C. wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Desmond, Daniel A., wounded at Hindenl)urg' liine. 
Dorn. Vernon V., <)assed at St. Souplet. October 20, 1918. 
Eldert. Clarence W.. wounded at Dickiebusch, August 4, 1918. 
Falk, Samuel, wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Galvin, William F.. wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Grimm. Ralph W.. wounded at Hindenbur^)- Line. 
Hein<)artner. Walter C, wounded at Hindenburg' Ijine. 
Heipt. Robert L., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Heng<),e. Frank B.. wounded at Ilindenburg Line. 
Leahy, Raymond D.. wounded at Hindenl)urg liine. 
Liedy, Lawrence J., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Lynch. Frank, wounded at Hindenbvu'g Line. 
McBrien, James D., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Mooney, Robert E., wounded at Hindenl)in-g Line. 
O'Reardon. Daniel (i., gassed at Hindenburg I^ine. 
Robinson, William A., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Schmitt. Alfred D.. gassed at Dickiebusch. August .>, 1918. 
Sime. Robert S., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Swan, Clinton C, wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Tillson. ]Mark D.. wounded at Hindenburg Line. 
Yeoman, Earl W., wounded at Hindenburg Line. 

C^Vrt^/o H.- 
Fischer. Herbert (x. ]M.. a])])ointed Second Lieutenant October 
30, 1918, on account of "gallantry in action and demonstrated 
fitness." 



f^\ ^.y"'^ ' ' 




rilK CO.AIl'AXY HISTORY 



8.1 




THE COMPANY HISTORY 



87 




THE COMPANY HISTORY 



80 

















c;koi;c;i, .i. i-. si al di.n.ma^ i-.i; 





THE COMPANY HISTORY 



91 




THE COMPANY HISTORY 



i)3 




THE COMPANY HISTORY 



95 




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THE co:mpaxy history 



WOUNDED 



I. :Mark Tillson: 2. Earl Yeoman; 3. Clint Swan: 4. Clar- 
ence Eldert; .). Fi-ank Hen<)<>e: (l. Boh Sinie: 7. Ray 
Leahy: 8. Rill Itohinson: '.». P,ill (ialvin: 10, Jake Liedy: 

II. Vie Horn: TJ, Tom Ryrne: 13, Dan O'Reardon: 14, 
Roh Ileipt: }.'>. Fiank Lyneh: Ki, .Timmie ^leRrien: 17, 
Danny Desmond: IS. Heil) Collins: 19. AValter Hein(>:art- 

ner: 20. A\ Sehmitt. 



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22 



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25 26 27 28 

^ ^ ^S, 

29 30 31 



32 



33 



THE COMTAXY HISTORY 99 



1, Jinuiiie Oiiclitei-loiiey : 2. Howard Pi'octor: .'}. I'hil 
O'Reilly: 4, Pete Baniuni: .>. Charles Skoii<>-; (>, "Eddie" 
Ediiioiidsdii : 7. Hnck Raniard: S. Charlie l{ea; 9, Sam 
Flatto: 10. Frank Cox: II. I'aul Selhy: 12. Joliii Evans: 
13, George Bneher: 14, Ralph Eehniann: 1.5, Phil Corwin; 
1(>, Ed. Fitter: 17. Starr VanDensen: 18. "Hap" Fendler; 
19, John Mnlvaney; 20. Eawrenee Squii-es: 2]. Jiiniiiie 
Cotter: 22, Captain Bonstield: 23, Terry Hamlin: 24, 
Clarenee Freeman: 2.>. John Me^Iahon: 2(J. "Tex" How: 
27. Stu Rose: 28. .lack Rowe: 29, "Here" Belyea : 30. 
Pereival Whitaker: 31, Charlie Dowries: 32, Joe Schnld: 

33, Tom Prior. 



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34- 



tup: co.aipaxy history loi 



1. Lifuteiiant .McLeruoii : 2. "Y)usty" Mhodvs: ti. Moi't 
Clark: 4. Johnnie Mahei'; .). Tom Adams: (J, William 
Stephenson: 7. Ilany Hlythe: 8. Don C'am[)hell: it. Ke^'. 
jNIoxley; 10. (innwald Olsen: 11, (ieor<;e (xerman: 12, Les 
Raker: l.'{. Jack Tiefel: 14. ^Vml)rose Fnrlon,<>': 1.), (iedney 
l{os.s; 1(1. George I'ieree; 17. Austin Leahy: 18. (reor^e 
.McKni^ht: 19, Roh Lander: 20, Rill Hallahan: 21. Jack 
Kenny: 22. ■Chowder" Keane: 23. Charles Peiree: 24, 
Rill Raynoi": 2.). Kdward Terry: 2(>, Ted Xoreross: 27, 
William lilamire: 28, Harry Stephenson: 2!», Rob Hall: 
.'}(), Tony Feri-aeane: .'Jl, "Rosie" Titconih: .32, James 
MeC'ormiek; .'33, Herb Fischer; 34, Fred Sehlegel. 





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26 



27 






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30 



31 



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33 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 103 



1. Fred Johnson: 2. Tod Fisher; li, Wilhani Faulk; 4. 
George ^leManus; o, (ius Snpansehit/ ; (I, Hoh Soper; 7, 
George Snyder; 8. Jiniinie Waldron; 9, "Hhnk" Ayres; 
10. "Wat" Tyler: 11. Amos Rogers; I'J. Hill Down; 18, 
"Red" Murj)hy: 14, "Hutch" Hutchison: l.>, Roger 
(Ti-eenhalgii; Ki. Jiininie Lynch; 17, Lieutenant Baden- 
hausen; 18. Dick Mansfield; li». Harold Bent/; 20. 
"Hank" ^Valker; 21. Joe Hopkins; 22. C'onstantine 
Makris; 23, David McAuley; 24, Joe Sheerin; 2.), Morton 
Isaacs; 26, Charlie Metzger; 27, Jack Correll; 28, Dav,? 
Hughes; 2!). Howie Retersdorf; 30. \Viniani Kaval; 31. 
Harrv Allison; 32, Bill Seerv; 33, "Rosie" Rosenhhun. 








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32 



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THE COMPANY HISTORY 105 



1. Anton Reiners: 2. ■'Dinty" Rowan: :i. Harold Rand: 
4, George Herrmann: .5. l^es Kane: (>. "Doc" Hart: 7, 
Gus Sulzer: 8. Bill Kearney: 9, Boh Sackett: 10, Joe 
Sullivan: 11. "Red" Braker: I'J. Fred \Vellinuer: 13, Jaek 
Greason: 14, Dave Gately: 1.). Lieutenant Fullei-: Ki. 
John VanDeventer: 17, Lieutenant \'onderl^ieth : IS 
Julius Ojipenheiin: 19, Howai-d Case: 20, Scotty York: 
21, Gus Becker: 22, Ernest (Trinini; 23, "Twill" Weller- 
ritter: 24, Eddie Reilly: 2"). Eddie Lynch: 2(5, Jioh 
Spencer: 27, Earl Ran.shury: 28, Ed Kimhall: 29, Joe 
Mclntyre: 80, "Plets" Hetzel: 31, Simon Steinhert^er: 
32, Ca])tain Alpers: 33, Arnold Hoffman. 



THE MOTHERS' AUXILIARY OF COMPANY B 



SURELY no history of Coinp:iiiy U could he called complete 
without ail account of the spleiuiid work done hy the ^Mothers' 
Auxiliary and its younger counterpart, the Young- People's 
Auxiliary. The value of the efforts of hoth these organizations, all of 
whose nienihers were interested primarily in making our army life 
happier and more comfortahle, was too often undervalued hy the mem- 
hers of Com])any \i. 

It is helieved that a detailed account of some of the work done hy 
these organizations will he hoth interesting and instructive. First, the 
Mothers' Auxiliary, which held over twenty meetings, had its first 
meeting Xovemher l.jth, 1!)17. shortly after the company had left for 
Sj)artanhurg. Eleven mothers were ])resent at the first meeting, which 
was held at the home of Mrs. Elizahcth K. Carey. 4'2(> State Street, 
Brooklyn. The idea seemed such a good one. however, that on the 
next meeting there were forty-five mothers present. JNIost of the 
meetings after the first were held at the Armoi-y, and a definite or- 
ganization, with officers and dues, was estahlished. 

The prohlem of i-aising money to add to the ha])])iness of the men 
was always the most \ ital topic discussed at tlie meetings. Surely the 
dues of tile memhei-s alone could not provide sufficient funds for this 
piirjjosc, and so \arioiis measures were suggested and adopted. Yarn 
was first purchased from the treasury, and the memhers husied them- 
selves in knitting socks. Then, on Fehruary 12tli. 1U18. was held a 
card party, which was (piite successful and yielded a suhstantial in- 
crease to the treasury. At almost everv meeting thereafter fancy 
articles, cakes, and hand-made goods were auctioned otY or drawn 
for hy lot. The ai-ficles were donated hy the memhers. and the pro- 
ceeds of the lotteries went to the gift fund which had heen organized 
hy the Auxiliary. The first definite result of this fund was a plentiful 
suj)ply of cigarettes and tohacco that ai-rixed in S])artanhurg for the 
Christmas of 1017. 

By the time the company had arri\ ed in l^'rance the amount accu- 
mulated in the treasury had reached a point where it was (|uite ])os- 
sihle for them to send two hundred dollars to us. This tliey did. and 
the money was used in hiiying chocolate, cigarettes, and other such 
luxuries, which reached us just after we had come out of the ITiiiden- 
l)urg Line, at \'illcrs-Faucon. Xo one will forget the pleasure which 
the gift of these supplies gave, or the added enjoyment which it gave 
hv heiiig a dii'ect gift from those \\'ho wei'c \ itally interested in our 

lOd 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 107 

welfare. A second two hundred dollars was sent to us. and for C'hrist- 
mas. 1918, the Auxiliary sent over two hundred and fifty dollars, 
wiiich was used in huyino- the extras for our Christmas dinnei- in Con- 
nerre. 

^Vllen the armistice was signed and the pressing need for con- 
trihutions to our comfort had diminished, the organization worked on 
jjlans for our home-coming celebration. 'I'he blue and red l)attalion 
banners so conspicuous in the New York parade on iNIarch 2.'Ah were 
the result of the united planning of our Auxiliary and the other 
Auxiliai'ies of the battalion. 

The meetings, which came to be held once a month, gave the 
mothers a good opportunity to gather and compare the letters written 
them from France, and these letters foruied the basis l)v which tiie 
needs of the company were estimated. A cable of greetings was sent 
to Connerre on Christmas, and was posted on the coni])nii\' bulletin 
board in the back of Cccile's court, near the kitchen. 

The Young People's Auxiliary, consisting of the sisters, friends, 
and sweethearts of the men in the company, was formed during the 
.summer of 1918. but it was not until ()ctober of that year tiiat they 
combined with the JNIothers' Auxiliary. They performed their share 
of raising money for the coinpany. however, holding a photo-play in 
the Armory. 

The crowning achievements of botli Auxiliaries, though, were, 
first, the Young People's dance at the Elks' Club in Brooklyn on 
]Mai-ch •J9th. and, secondly, the banquet held by the Mothers" Aux- 
iliary at the Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn on April 7th, 1919. 

There was consideral)le d()u])t as to whether the conipauv would 
l)e able to secure permission to go from Camp I'ptoii to Brooklvn lV)r 
the Young People's dance, as the orders were very sti'ict that no one 
waiting for discharge should be jiermitted to leave camp. It was found 
to be almost as hard to get a pass for Brooklyn as it was for an M. P. 
to get a l)ottle of cognac out of an estaminet in Connerre. Somebody 
managed it, however, and we took the afternoon train for Bi-ooklyn. 
The dance was a huge success, even with oui- hob-nailed shoes and hot 
uniforms, and was the one bright spot in the week we spent at Upton. 

The baiKjuet at the Bossert, for most of us. was the farewell 
gathering togethei- of the old bunch. Even at that, the absence of the 
Apple-knockers from Utica and Rochester was noticeable. After the 
dinner, which was a sumptuous one and very well arranged, speeches 
were made by Ca])tain Boustield, Colonel Bryant, Colonel ^IcEear, 
and Bi-igadier-General DeBevoise. Dancing followed. 

On Api-il nth, four days after the bancpiet, was held the last 
meeting of the Mothers' Auxiliary. Although there still remains over 
two hundred dollars in the treasury, the organization has disbanded, as 
the reasons for its work have now disappeared. During the twentv 
months of its existence the Auxiliary was supported and maintained 
throughout by twenty-seven mothers. There were many others who 
were members of the organization for a time, but, for various reasons. 



108 



rilE COMPANY IIlSrOHV 



M'ere forced to di'op out and leave the work of carrying' on to these 
few. To the AuxiUaries, botli ^Mothers' and Yoiin<>- People's, and 
especially to the unfailiiiy- efforts of the twenty-se\en loyal niotliers, 
we of the c()in])any shall always he indehted. 

The final othcers were: 

President, Mrs. Samuel Greason: \'ice-President, ]Mrs. E. J. 
Byrne; "Jnd A'ice-President, ^Nlrs. Charles Waldron: Secretary, ]Mrs. 
Elizabeth K. Carey: Ti-easurer, ]Mrs. Charles Fisher; Auditor, Mrs. 
Peter jNIcIntyi'e. Alenihers of tlie Xoniinating Committee were: ^Irs. 
Anna Vonderlieth. Mrs. Mary McManus.and Mrs. Carl Heinyartner. 




ENGLISH HOSPITALS 

Bv JAMES A. LYNCH 



AL3IOST all of our wounded heroes have had the exijcrience of 
a rouud-ti-i}) excui-sion through an Knu'lisli hospital and eon- 
valescent camp. Xor was this privile<4e limited to wounded 
men. In faet. few there were indeed who remained uiiniune to the 
forei<Jii species that Hew ahout waitin_<>- to he devom-ed hy .some unfor- 
tunate vietini. Once tliese "■flu" <>erms took hold, there was nothini^- 
left to do hut to allez-tout-de-suite on a Red Cross train to the places 
al)o\ e named. 

The stoi-ies tolti hy these men aftci- havin<4' completed the excur- 
sion were at rii'st hard to helieve, hut as the hoys continued to come 
hack to the company, and in their turn coi'rohorated each other's 
statements, tlie stories were finally helieved. 

My own experiences were perhaps rather typical. Th()u<^h some 
undouhtedly have wilder tales of the "con" cam]js to relate, I am (juite 
sure that my tour was sufficiently like all others to cause a rush of 
i-eminiscent merriment to suffuse their faces. 

I purchased my ticket for the tour just after the conn)any left 
Huire, whicli will he rememhered hy all as the place where the "tin" 
_<>erms conducted a special drill entitled "Fall out one." 

]My ticket called for a stretcher on a G.S. wa^on as far as the 
Casualty Clearing Station, where many were called out hut few got 
up — to answer "Here" to their names. I had often craved a ride in an 
automohile, and my wish was granted when a l)eautiful Red Cross 
amhulance hacked up to the CCS. to take me ahoard a lied Cross 
train. 

As I lay on my hack in the train I kept wishing that I'd he luckv 
enough to ])ull at least a good-looker for a nurse. But uj)on arriving at 
the liospital and gazing into her map, it was far from taking a shot of 
hi-andy. though the effect ]))-oduced was someAvhat the same. I quite 
disagreed M'ith the fellow who wrcjfe "I'm in love with a heautiful 
nurse." 

I Avas scarcely comfortahle in the })lace when this Xorwegian 
sunset came to my hedside with a thermometer in her liand. The 
way she placed tlic thermometer under my tongue made me think 
she had hit her finger-nail with a hanuner. She then grahhed mv 
hand to take my ])ulse. and the way she looked into my eyes convinced 
me that she came from one of those ]Manchester families — the kind 
you can't get along with. 

109 



110 THE COMPANY HISTORY 

She had no sooner departed when slie was l)aek a<>ain with a ghiss 
of "Kill-or-Cure" in one hand and in t!ie other a card tliat looked Hke 
the inseription phite on a eotfin. After takin<>' one j^iilp of tlie "Kill- 
or-C'nre," I was ready to fold my arms and tell them to liyht two 
eandles hehind my head. 

Tlie followiii")- niorninjj- I awoke and found I was not alone. 
Directly opposite there were twenty Tommies and on my side of the 
ward were eif>hteen others. Another Yank and myself made a foil 
house. 

Ahout 9:."J() in walked the doctor with a Cockney swin<>-, and one 
of the Tommies who was up and ahout clicked his heels and slionted 
"Shun." This brought all the Tommy hed-j^atients who were sleep- 
ing at an angle of forty-five degrees to the position of a man after he 
had been on ice for six weeks. The doctor then started his rounds, 
stopping at each cot, and incpiii'lng in a carefree maimer the condition 
of each man's health. The replies were always discoui-aging, hut they 
(hdnt seem to discourage the doctor any. 

Kach morning he would enter in this mannei-. causing much 
worry to those Tommies who were able to get out of bed but didn't 
want to, for they were sure their company was up in the line. 

This continued for a week, when 1 became well enough to be up 
and about. I had not had on my "blues" two mimites when the 
Xorwcgian nightingale was after me to scrub the tlooi-s. I looked 
at hei' very nuich surprised, and loftily explained that scrubbing tloors 
was not my line, and passed the buck to one of the Tommies. 

One of the |)aticnts hy the name of l*addy seemed to have the 
doctor topsy-turvy. His case interested me \ery much. Although 
he didn't seem to be in nuich ])ain, he always seemed to have a high 
temperature when the doctoi- was around. Being of a Judy-friendly 
sort of fellow. 1 decided to make his accpiaintance. I hadn't known 
him fi\e minutes befoie I discovered the secret of his tcmpei-atni-c. 

He had a small bag nndei' his pillow, which he showed me with 
a wink, and told me to watch his actions when the doctor was due. I 
decided to watch him the following morm'ng. 

Al)out the time the doctor was due to arrive he would put this 
bag to his mouth and take a large gulp, jumping from his bed and at 
the same time waving his ai'ms around. These calisthemcs finished, 
he would juiu]) back in bed again and await the doctor. 

"\Vell, Paddy, how are you to-day f" 

i\nd with a wail and a moan came the answci", "Oh, doctor. I'm 
sick! ' placing his hands above his heart. 

"Where, Paddy f asked the Doc. 

And Paddy's oidy answer was "Here," whei'e his hands lay. 

The doctor tested his heart, and much to the surprise ancl envy 
of the other Tonunies marked his card "Heart palpitation." 

i\fter the doctor had left the ward I asked l';iddy what was in 
the bag, and he whispered, with another wink: 

"Bluestone." 



THE COMPANY HISTORY ill 

The same evening- two Yanks appeared on the scene with not 
much ambition but with a terrible thirst. Waving a couple of loose 
francs in the air. they inquired at the same time if some kind gent 
wouldn't go out and buy some chan.ipagne for them. As the word 
champagne was mentioned Paddy's ears pricked nj), he came to one 
of tliose snapi^y British salutes, and said: 

"I'm yoin- man." 

He had not been gone on his ei-rand half an hour before he was 
back with a starboard list that reminded me of that old familiar sign 
on the Brooklyn Bridge. "I^oaded Teams Keep to the Bight." His 
sense of direction seemed to be all right from the hips down, l)ut from 
the head to the hips he seemed to be executing I^eft Oblicpie. This 
caused the two Yanks to gaze in dismay at Paddy's empty arms. 

Xothing would do for Paddy but to perform for the boys, but 
his carrying on had not been going on five minutes before the Colonel 
himself appeared on the scene. It was the first time the Doc had 
caught Paddy away from his beloved bluestone, and Paddy felt like 
.Samson witliout his hair. 

This was I'addy's downfall, as instead of getting a nice "Blighty" 
his card was marked "The line." On his way out to the con camj) the 
following morning Paddv winked at me and said: 

"I'll be back." 

The next day I was sent away to the "Con" camp in a Tommy's 
uniform and a pair of shoes five sizes too large for me. It seemed as 
though every two feet I walked forward I woidd fall back six, and I 
thought I would never reach the place. Upon arriving at the "Con" 
camp we were all lined up and assigned to a hut. ^ly boudoir con- 
sisted of three boards, a bed sack with some wood shavings in it (but 
the fellow that had it before me must have been terribly hungry one 
night and ate all the shavings out of it), and two blankets. Feeling 
very kittenish that night, and being four francs, seventy centimes short 
of having five fi'ancs. I ])urcliascd a reserved seat at the movies for 
"tuppence-hapenny" and had no trouble striking a balance after ha\ - 
ing paid for it. 

Betuniing to the hut and feeling rather tired after such a strenu- 
ous evening, I decided to retire earh'. On my right lay a Tommy Avith 
one eye open, and any one standing at a distance would think he was 
winking. I thought 1 would take him into my confidence and tell him 
what a wonderful evening I had had, but after wasting fifty or sixt\- 
perfectly wonderful questions and getting no reply I discovered he 
was sound asleej) and had a glass eye! 

The next day I was put in charge of a digging detail and liad 
twenty men assigned to me. Lining them up into a colunm of twos. 
I marched at their head to the tool-house, but upon arriving there I 
discovered the whole bunch, except the first two men, had ducked. 
Detail was dismissed, and back to the hut I went to continue reading- 
some of Nicholas Carter's great works. 



IIJ THE COMPANY HIS TORY 



THE VICKERS .303 

By DANIEL G. O'REARDON 

'A\e you \';ir(I of the modern lady 

Called Mademoiselle Mitfailleuse;' 
She's a twentieth-century dehutante, 

^Vith morals a trifle loose. 
Oh, 'er mother was a gatliny .ui'ii. — 

^Vlio 'er father was no one knows, 
liut she's trim and ])etite. and li^ht and neat. 

And she doesn't wear any clothes. 

She's a i-e!4'ular rip-snortin^' son of a .u'un. 

Of calihre .;}(m, 
With wonderful penetration. 

And a stin<»' like an 'ive of bees. 
It tikes eiyht men to keep 'er clean. 

And she's very dyspeptic at times. 
You cuss 'er like 'ell when you're out on rest. 

But it's "ma cherie" up in the lines. 

Oh, 'er hlinkin' yiits are steel clean through. 

And so is 'er hlooinin' 'eart. 
And to keep 'er always runninii' smooth. 

It tikes a lot o' art. 
She's ^ot a stutter in 'er speech. 

That's bad fer the nerves of 'er foes. 
Their wind is up when they 'ears 'er voice. 

Lest they reaj) the death she sows. 

'Er trajectory's low; 'er velocity high. 

And she'll kill at a bleedin' mile. 
And she'll eat throu<>h a belt of ammo 

In thirty seconds' time. 
But still you can never trust 'er. 

She's fickle like most of 'er sex. 
So, if you would woo 'er, be patient. 

Or vour temper she'll often vex. 

She'll work like a charm behind the lines. — 

She'll be sweet as a lamb at the range, — 
Hut up in the line, when she's needed most. 

In "er manners there's often a change. 
When the zero hour comes whis])crin' down 

And the barrage opens up with a bang. 
And you press the hlinkin" trigger. 

Then surer than 'ell she'll jam. 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 113 



She's last in tlie rear-i^uard action. 

And hides Hke a maiden coy. 
Till the waves of life ehl) thick and fast, — 

Then she stutters with hleedin" joy. 
She fires where the ranks are thickest 

In a steady leaden hail. 
And dies like a little 'ero. 

Ringed "round with the hulks of the slain. 

Ivast in retreat, — but she never retreats, — 

First when it conies to a push. 
Then it's out in the open you"ll find "er. 

In shell hole, field, or hush. 
Pushing 'er outposts hokllv 

Under the enemy's fire. 
Shinning up trees to a nest with the bees. 

Or lying knee-deep in the mire. 

'Er 'arvests stretch 'cross northern France, 

From the ocean to the Vosges rim. 
On hill and plain, and shell-scarred vale. 

Where ]Mars jjroclaimed him king. 
Harvests of scarred crosses, — 

Hosts of forgotten graves, — 
Carved on the fields where they lived and loved. 

And fighting, died to save. 

She's a giant without a conscience. 

And a vam]>irc cruel and cold. 
Who tights for the highest bidder. 

And whose soul is bought and sold. 
A 'owling, snapping she-wolf. 

Whose fangs are cruel and long. 
She sings like a luring siren. 

And men die to the tune of 'er song. 

'Ere's to the lads who fought 'er 

And felt er miu'derous fire, — 
'Ere's to the mothers who bore them. 

To sister, sweetheart and sire, 
'Ere's to the little devil 'erself. 

And 'ere's to the song she sings. 

***** 

Her voice is hushed forever. 
And we hear 'er never, never — 
In the glorious, victorious, 
I'iping times of peace. 



114 THE COMPANY HISTORY 



A FIGHTER 



Tliei-f's ;i fcrtaiii type of lighter, lie's a dariiig'. (lasliiiiu' 
l)li<^hter: 

He never seenis to know the word retreat. 
With a bayonet on his ritie, yon ean het he'll never tritle^ 

And as a ti<i'htin,u: man he's got old Jerry heat. 

\A'hen the Jiritish go to battle, with their nsual flash and rat- 
tle. 
The man I speak of often does the most. 
He's a great offensive serapper. and as a soldier very dap- 

And though he s talkative, yon 11 seldom lieai' him boast. 

He showed his blooming staivh when he stopped the Hnn in 
March. 

They were headed for the Port of old Calais. 
With a shout of bold defiance, and artillery for reliance. 

He sto[)pe(l them in his own aggressive way. 

AVhen von look back through the ages, turning over histoiy's 
pages. 
You'll Hud bra\ e <]eeds of men in every war. 
Hut no breed of man looms liigger than the rough-and-ready 
"digger." 
]\Jv hat's off to Australia. It's her son I'm speaking for! 

—Corp. Yokk. A. E. F. 



THE COMPAXY HISTORY 11.5 



VILLERET 



Here was the cluivch — these massive boulders would 
Remind us of tall spires. Not far away 
Among debris, and broken bricks of clay, 
The yawning- cellars show where houses stood. 
Deep silence here — throughout the neighborhood 
Reigns (piiet. ever quiet, night and day. 
The only signs of life are rats at play. 
Or tufts of grass, which peep from jiiles of wood. 

Yet once there Ywed a happy people here — 
Young lovers, arm in arm, upon this ground 
Were wont to stroll. Old Frenchmen, year on year, 
Heard shouts of playful children ring around 
Each house. But now, the very atmosphere 
Is still. And desolation reigns profound. 

L. S. B. 



IKi THE COMPANY HISTOKV 



TO CECILE 

By CORP. YORK, A. E. F. 

There'.s a vision tliuts dear to my battered old iieart. 

It's the cause of the pain that I feel — 
There's a face in my memory that never can part. 

It's the "tres jolie" face of Cecile. 

In the little cafe where we passed the long- day. 

Our lives were as gay as could he — 
We drank to her eyes, and told beaiicoup lies. 

And oni- only reward was "Merci." 

There was lo\ c in her eyes, and her sweet little sighs 

Told us there were kisses to steal. 
My thoughts cross the sea — to the "Rue de Paree," 

And the little cafe of Cecile. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 11' 






ASK ANY VOLUNTEER 

^^"()lll(l you clmni'e it ;i,<>-;iiti if the army was calling 
Would you straighten and click with your heels ^ 

\\'ould you throw down your pen and pick up your havonet. 
To slog- it again through the same foreign fields^ 

A\'ould you leave the old home and the ties that still hind xou. 

To answer the challenge of some foreign foe. 
And go hack to the hell that you went through in Flanders — 

Just foi- your country — old j^al, would you go^ 

\N^)ul(l you stick to your joh in a lunen of safety. 

If over the seas they were pulling a stunt f 
^^"hy, you'd oil up the Vickers. old pal, in a jiffy. 

^Vnd iahel your letters: "I'm off to the front!" 

— Sc'OTTY York. 



OUR LETTER BOX 

DT'HIXCi the smiiiiier of 1910 several t'oi-ui letters were sent out 
to the men in C'oiii])any \l askin,i>- them to set down the iueideiit 
or thiiio- most worth rememl)eriiiLi- in theii- armv ex])erieiR'e. 
The I'eplies reeeived were varied, i-anyiiin' IVom the hi,i>lily sentimental 
Statue of Liberty to tlie t>eiieral topie of the tanks j>()in<^' through at 
the Hindeiii)urn- stunt. The replies as a whole were rather diseour- 
aging- in volume or originality. However, the best reeeived are set 

down below, hi the hope that tliey will i-eeall the ineident to the reader. 

* ' * * 

For example. Austin Leahy reealled the time when the train bear- 
ing- its human ban'^at^e was passini^' over the bridge at Kouen. Those 
sitting' on the door-step of the car lie was in noticed a peculiar odor in 
the atmosphei-e — one which was unrecognizable to them. Vai'ious con- 
jectures were made, and the prevailing- opinion was settled ui)on that 
there must be a .n'lue factory in Kouen. as nothing short of a ylue fac- 
tory could produce such an etfect. At that ])articular moment, fi'om 
the interior of the car came Jake Liedy's tremulous voice, saying: 

"Oh. mv feet hurt — but tliev feel better with my shoes off." 

* ■ * * 

Buck Bai'uai-d writes as follows: 

"The most amusing thing I I'emember occurred when we were 
figuring the fii'ing data in the ^"aux Andigny woods, and one of Jerrys 
nose-caps made a graceful and whistling entry on the scene. Mc- 
lutvre scrambled behind Lieut. Badeiihausen with a look of absolute 

protection." 

* * * 

Eddie I>ynch is frank, at any rate. He writes: 
"Just i-eceived your letter, as I have bei'U u]) at Saratoga for the 
last month. There is no particular incident that I can mention, as my 

arniv life was a blank." 

* * * 

Tod Fishei- went on record for saying that the Christmas dinner 
in Connerre. and tlie entertainment afterwards were the things he re- 
membered most vividly. "Particularly." says Tod. "the time when 

mv dear old friend. Mr. Verkes. got his pi-i/,e."" 

* * * 

Oddlv enough, no one recalled the time when this same Tod 
Fisher bade the men in the elephant hut at Kaincheval a fond good- 
night, saying, 

"And once more before I say good-night. . . ." 
when he was interrupted by the captain's indignant voice. 

118 



THE COMPAXY IIISTOKV 



119 



Or who fan ever forget Jake I.iedy telling the storv of his hfe 
to eager listeners in this same hut at Raiiicheval ;• Jake is Verv modest 
abont appearing in print, as may l)e judged from the following: 

"I enjoyed heing with B C'om])any nnieh more than with F 
Troop. In regards to a few lines from me on the Company History, 
put in A. Ivincoln's speech for me. Some time if you come to Staten 
Island, dro]) me a line, and I will endeavor to take you to the Seamen's 
Home and other places of interest."" 

* * * 

Jimmie Ouchterloney is both generous and helpful. He recalls 
the "first night in Dirty Bucket Woods, when the shells were scream- 
ing over oui- heads, and Mc- 
Intyi'e and Kay Leahy were 
running around, shouting, 
'Theyre shellin' the woods." 
while every one else was 
reaching for that little ol" 
gas mask and tin hat."' 

Others may remember, 
says Jimmie, how, during 
the air-raid on Xiemdet, 
when the bombs were falling 
the fastest. Jack Kenny was 
insisting that "They were 
only small bombs, and Jcrrv 
will call again with larger 
ones in an houi- or two."" 

Again, to (piote Jimmie further, we have Gns Sulzei- leaning out 
of a box car, greeting his Iienchmen. the Cicrman jjrisoners. with a 
"Wie gehts. Frit/,!'"" 

Or Jake I>iedy. once more, who is pei-haj)s too nmch ])icke(l upon, 
in his high j)itched \-oice, s])ui-ning shot and shell, and remarking 
coolly, 

"I 11 go for the i-ations — this war is a joke."' 

* * * 

Possibly most of these recollections h.ave ])assed into the most un- 
used cubby-holes of our minds by this time. At any rate, no one but 
Scotty York was vmfeeling enough to set down Victor Selig as an ex- 
perience. But then, as we all know, Scotty was prejudiced in favor 
of his protege. 

SiJeaking of Selig reminds us of S/x-zecinski trying to imbibe the 
proper way to execute "Scpiads Left"' from the all-too-])atient non- 

com"s at Camp Stuart. 

* * * 

Countless recollections will come crowding each otheV in our 
memories as a result of a few starters such as these. Who can ever 
forget the sight of ]Mulligan"s stroke as he was swimmhig in the 
canal at Setcpies; or Kdmondson, on Xew Year"s morning, with the 




c;r()11' Ar v,\\ I'.iixiF. 



120 



TIIK COMPANY HISTOHY 



Fi'fiK'li ci\ili;iii clothes on. (lis<>iii.siiio' liis walk: or Ijance-Corporal 
'I'aylor of the Hritish Maehiiie (riiii Corps histriieting- on the "Firiny- 
])in-"ole"'; or Haddy l)hishin<4- and jjullini"- down his coat-tails; or oiling 
up the linihers for ins])ection: or the sergeants going to the head of 
the mess line: or the geiidarines at C"onnei-re: or the time Dan O'liear- 
doiTs jjistol went off at inspection at Haincheval: or ^lajor Egleston 
ins])ecting the l)attalion at C'onnerre: or Kddie Hurke shooting crap; 
or climhiiig over the fence at Hay l{idge; or, in that same connection, 
JNIoxlev and Lehmann getting caught hy the M. V.: or the ash-cans 
in the middle of the com])any street at S])artanl)urg: or Joe Kiley get- 
ting his National Ciuard discharge at Spartanl)ui\g: or "jjassing the 
\vor(r" to fellows in the stable tent; or the "rookie" moidvey drills at 
the armoiy: or e\ en our tri])s to Parish 

Paul Selhy contributes the l)est one from far-away Odebolt, Iowa. 
He says: "Tlie most amusing thing I remember was when Ilet/el 
came running into the company kitchen at \"aire. with a grenade in 
his hand ready to explode, which he proceeded to ])ut into Bill the 
Cook's pocket, together with the a(l\ ice for Hill to run like hell so he 

^vouldn't s])oil the kitchen." 

* * * 

Aftei- all. the most agonizing times are glossed over thi-ough the 
kijidness of time, and now we only remember the amusing or the in- 
tcj'esting ones. It is best so. 




ADDRESS LIST OF COMPANY B 

t™^'"^' '^^'^^^■^^ i<J93 Ferris Street, Woodhaven, N. Y. 

A&ER, SNOWDEN ^ ,, \, ^. 

. T r T ,^,^ Brooklyn. N. \ . 

ALLISOxW HARRY D.,.. P.,i,au a u",,- t t 

, T T,T^„ -, ^'"° '^^t" Avenue, Mollis, L. I. 

ALPERS. GEORGE F h . . t t 

..,„_-, T,>r^, Huiitinutoii. I>. I. 

RA T^r^^.^t ");5^ ^ 161 Cypress Street, Rochester, N. Y. 

RAn.v„;r''''°'''''' " ''' ^-'•'» A—' R-'-^ter N. Y. 

r'aIkr T V f/^- -''''''^'^" " ''' ^---'-^^ «*-^*- ^^*^P''-^-- ^-^ V- 

^^^^O^nU- - State St.et, Br. ..Y. 

T> » r.x-r-,, . „ Vernon Center, N. Y. 

BARM M, ARTHUR M ,,18 Sevnun.r Avenue. Utica N Y 

BARRETT. CARLETON R. , . . " " , ^/ A' 

BEcSf Ii-r^"" ' ::::::-;oH.w street,- i^S;: ': I: 

HVT v^f' ;\,.i''^ ^' ^^^ MeDonough Street, Brooklvn. N. Y. 

pr^tn^t „ .^ ^ ^^^ Seventy-fifth Street, Brooklvn, N Y 

^^«"^o^i^u ■" ^■" HT't 'T -'n ""■ " " 

BLAHA JAMES J f.i-r,„g,„„ M,„.. I-ln.l.ing, N. V. 

B^A^S;;;;;^'^^. :::::::::::::::; ...,.„;, ..„..,..„::;';;.- 

RT VTHi,- ui.'x'i.,' T, Emdenhurst, N. Y. 

boItsi'cIht ,nLL. '' """""' '"'■"■ ^°"" ^^«"- '""■ 

BODETTE. EUGENE J /,' ' ' 'P"'*' ^'l^- 

BOTT. EDWI\ \ Address unknown. 

BOUSFIELD, HAROLD W '.r'., p, ' ■'^'^^'']\ unknown. 

BRABENEC. FRANK H ,o.o'^ h 7"" \ ""''''"■ ""■ ''• 

BRAKER, HARRY D . . ; ''■'' "^ ' ^^VTI. T''^' ''' 

BROWN. FELIX ''*'*'' ''"■'*• ""'^''""' ^- ^'■ 

BROWN. JOHN W ioo. '^^ U ■/ No™ood. R. L 

BUCHER, GEORGEV '''■"""^' ^'^"""^' ^^'^'^^''"-*- ^■°»"- 

BULLiNGi?^ tSn^iri,''' ''-' '''-Tn T'r ^r ]-'.■ ?• ^• 

BURKE. EDWIN A ' ^^ ^ ''^"'''■'"^' ^ ^'""■ 

BYRNE, THOMAS E. '^'c>'. r ii '^.^ ' ' '^f'^'^'' ""known. 

CAMP. BI AGIO . . : . 'Z « «'■" i', °°' •"'• ''• '' 

CAMPBELL. DONALD B .o^ s, 7" T' '''""^"' "' 

CARNEY. LESTER T Muyvesant Avenue. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

CARPENTER, ROBERT S a^^ , '^!!''''"' ""'^"o""- 

CASE, HOWARD T %T 1 ^"'"''' """''"'"■• ''• ''• 

CHA^'OUS. RUSHA , ' 'wT"' ^'•""'^^'J"'''*- N- Y. 

CHOBOTSKY. ADOLPh' J "■ ^*'''*' ^"^"'^*^' ^^• 

CLARE, PHILIP J Cicero, 111. 

CLARK. MORTON S . . . .>„: ,, ' ' i ' oV ' ' ' ' „: V ^'■""'^'•^■"- ^^- Y- 

CLARKE, HAROLD L. . ''^' ""'"■'• '''^■'""""^' "■''• L- I- 

COLE. ELMER E. . ^^'''''^' ^- ^'- 

Brooklyn. N. Y. 

121 



122 rilK COMPANY HISTORY 

C OI.LINS, HERBERT Cx 21!) West 'I'liirtx -tourtli Street, New York, N. V. 

CONNOR EDWARD E 3<>- Di nineade Avenue. Columbus. Ohio. 

CONNORS, C HESTER T Address unknown. 

COPPENS, .I.VCOHL'S Titus Avenue, Irondequoit. N. Y. 

CORRELL, .JOHN H I">'I Cypress Street, Rochester, N. Y. 

CORWIX. PHH.n' G 7 Brifigs Avenue. Richmond Hill, L. I. 

COTTER, J.\.MES E 11 Frederick Street, Framinjiham, Mass. 

COX, LE MOYNE FRANK :-'<h) West Eighty-first Street, New York,N. Y. 

CRONK, HAHR^' H 1 •> ^^'t st Cliestnut Street, Norwalk. Ohio. 

CU.M.MINGS, Lieut. ,IOHN Address unknown. 

CURTISS, JAMES M Petersl)urg, Tenn. 

D.WISON, Lieut Address unknown. 

DEXE^'E, PETER •'"' Oak Street, Green Point. Mich. 

DESMOND, DANIEL A «-'0 First Street. Rensselaer. N. Y. 

DORN, VERNON VICTOR 1"> i:i Howard .\venue. Utica, X. Y. 

DOWN, MII.LIA.M 1 1-^* H.immond Avenue, L'tica, N. Y. 

DOWNES, CHARLES DeB I2(;8 Pacific Street. Brooklyn, X. Y. 

ni'CHEN, BEXXIE •'iH-'t ^Vtst Thirteenth Street, Chicago. 111. 

DYKE, ALBERT Brooklyn, X. Y. 

EBSTEIN, LEO J Address unknown. 

EDMONDSON, ARTHUR S 55 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, X. Y. 

ELDERT, CLAREXCE W --'OCj Fulton Street, .Jamaica, X. Y. 

EXGELMANN, VICTOR M R. F. I). Xo. (i. Box (il. .Maitowac. Wis. 

EPSTEIN. .MORRIS I -"^'i"- Poland. 

ERICKSON, ALCiOTH E Box 1 !••_'. R. F. D. 1, Iron River, Midi. 

EVANS, JOHN 220 Daniel Low Terrace, Tompkinsville, S. .I.,X. Y. 

FALK. SAML'EI l I'JJ Xorth Talman Avenue, Chicago, 111. 

FANNON, JOHN R. F. D. 1, Dennison. Ohio. 

FAULK, WILLI A.M E Box 25 L Stuart. Fla. 

FENDLER, HAROLD F: 20 F'ast I'ourth Street, .Mount Vernon, X. Y. 

FERGUSON. BRADFORD D Mount Vernon. N. Y. 

FERRACANE, AXTHONY 2022 .Vmsterdam Avenue. New York. .X. Y. 

FISCHER. HERBEK r (i. M 28 Whitney Place, Buttalo, N. Y. 

FISHER, CH.VRLES B .330-B President Street, Brooklyn, N, Y. 

FITTER. EDCiAR A 3tl Washington Avenue. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

FITZGERALD, WM.l.LV.M J 309 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

FLATTO, SA.MUEI 610 West 152nd Street, New York, X. Y. 

FORD, JAMES V., 

.Vildress of parents, 122 Fourth Street, New Brighton- S. I.. X, Y. 

FRANKS, CHARLES S Stateii Island, X. Y. 

FREEMAN, (T.ARENCE S Utica, N. Y. 

IHEKIC IIS. I'EHDIX.VXD J., 

Address of parents. 130 Lnderhill Avenue, Brooklyn. X. Y. 

FULLER. KAXDOl.PH M 2 Tennis Court. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

FURLOXG, A.M RROSE B (iO St. Marks Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

G.VLVIX, WILLIAM F 70.5 C arroU Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

CiARTHE. DAVID Address unknown. 

GATELY. \).\\'\ 1) T 1023 Lincoln Place. Brooklyn. X. Y. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 123 

GERLING, GEORGE I Rochester, N. Y. 

GERMAN, GEORGE, Jh 18 Seminole Avenue, Forest Hills, L. I. 

GILMAN, FRANK Address unknown. 

GREASON, JOHN M 281 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

GREEN, KNEELAND 1 171 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

GREENHALGH, ROGER ■ 83 Dove Street, Albany, N. Y. 

GRIFFIN, JEPTHA Hoboken, Ga. 

GRIGG. GEORGE D R. F. D. 1, Glenn Allen. Ala. 

GRIMM, ERNEST .505 West 164th Street, New York, N. Y. 

GRIMM, RALPH W lOl.'J Greenfield Avenue, Canton, Ohio. 

GROVE, OLIVER M R. F. D. 1, Mt. Union, Huntin^on Co., Pa. 

GWYER, CHARLES I Brooklyn, N. Y. 

HAIR, LAWRENCE F 419 Greenwood Avenue, Atlanta, Ga. 

HALL, ROBERT M 30 Church Street, New York, N. Y. 

HALLAHAN. WILLIA.M H., Jh H3 Fifth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

HAMLIN, THOMAS 1 10 Hamilton Street, Rochester, N. Y. 

HAN LEY, ,K)HX G 20.51 .Morris Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

HANSIRD. .JOHN \V Eton, Ga. 

HARDGROVE, GOLDSMITH H., 

Address of widow, 1 U)l \\'oodhaven Avenue, A\'oodhaven. L. I. 

HARGATHER. PETER J Address unknown. 

HART, HOWARD R 5 Paris Street, New Hartford, N. Y. 

HAY, DANIEL B Address unknown. 

HE.\TH. GLENN J Box 154, Andover, Ohio. 

HEIFFEL- CHARLES EUGENE, 

Care of E. B. Owen, .Seliofield Town Road. .St;imford, Conn. 

HEINGARTXER, WALTER C lo()(5 Newkirk Avenue. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

HEIPT, ROBERT I r.'S Kingsland Avenue. Elmhurst, L. I. 

HENGGE, FRANK B 1 12t Summit Avenue, Utica, N. Y. 

HERR.MANN, GEORGE Ill East ISOtli Street, New York, N. Y. 

HETZEL. MERVIN GEORGE 33 Coenties Slip, New York, X. Y. 

HILDEBRANDT, GEORGE F Cameron, Wis. 

HILL, E.M.MERT Rock Bottom. W. \'a. 

HOFFMAN. ARNOLD R 1 lot Bnnckerhoff Avenue. Utica. N. Y. 

HOLMES, CHARLES V 3018 Orleans Street, Pittsburirli. Pa. 

HOPKINS, .lOSEPH G. X 319 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

HOW, ARCHIBALD ST. G.. 

Care of Mr. Brow?i, Prospect Avenue. Mount Vernon. N. Y. 

HUGHES, DA\'l D B 5« Broadway, Utica, N. Y. 

HUGHES, JAMES Address Unknown. 

HUTCHLSOX, FRANK R 115(5 Hopkins Street, Oakland, Cal. 

ISAACS, MORTON 57 East Ninety-sixth Street, New York, N. Y. 

JOHNSON, FRED A 1225 Green Street, Utica, N. V. 

KANE, LESLIE 840 Church Street. Richmond Hill, L. I. 

KAVAL, WILLIAM 507 West 159th Street. New York. N. Y. 

KAYE, JAMES E Rochester. X. Y. 

KEANE, ARTHUR J 131 Ashland Place. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

KEARNEY, WILLIAM T 165 East 104th Street, New York, N. Y. 



124 THE COMPANY HISrORY 

KELI.Y. KDW'Alil) .1 Address unknown. 

KELLY, FRANK R liiis M.inli.itt.m Str.tt. Pittsburgh. Pa. 

KENNY. ,I()HN .1 Wt-stbrook. Coini. 

KIDD. .JOHN .1 Uannttte. P.i. 

KLMBALL, EDWARD 1... ,(h 7() Hartl.tt Strr.t, Maiden. Mass. 

KLINE. CHARLE.S I Lewisburj;. Pa. 

KLINE, .L\MES Aidire. Pa. 

KOHL. JOHN 1 107 Rush ,Str,<t. Ndrthsidc Pittsburoli. Pa. 

KLRTZ. Lieut. AlGl'ST Address unknown. 

LAMANC'E. .lOHN E Address unknown. 

LAMBERT, .lOSEPH P Address unknown. 

LAUDER. ROBERT G 122 West Sixty-tliird Street, New York. N. Y. 

LAUER, ERANtTS .1 37 How Street, Eorest Hills, L. I. 

LEAHY', AUSTIN V 5.58 Sewntli Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

LEAHY, RAYMOND I) 558 Seventh Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

LEHMANN, RALPH R 9(36 St. Mark's Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

LEVINE, LOUIS 552 West Hi.-Jrd Street, New York. N. Y. 

LIEDY, LAM'RENCE ,1 71'8 Rielnnond Terraee, New Briirliton. S. I., N. Y. 

LOWE. CHARLES I Address unknown. 

LYBAERT, HENRY Address unknown. 

LYNCH, EDWARD H 91. S Cauldwell Avenue, Bronx. N. Y. 

LYNCH, ERANK .'i-'tS Pine Street, Ereeport, L. I. 

LY'NCH. .TAMES A 259 Steuben Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

MAHER, .lOHN W 1018 Park Avenue, Utica. N. Y. 

MAKRIS. CONSTANTINE R. F. D. 1, Box 1(3, Bristol. Tenn. 

MANSFIELD, RICHARD R Rapid City, S. Dak. 

MASON. ROBERT M 215 West Twenty-third Street, New Y'ork, X. Y. 

MATTHEWS. GERALD G Address unknown. 

MAYER. TOWNSEND E 98 Henry Street. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

M( AUI.F'Y. DAVID 21(3 East I'orty-sevintli Street. New Y'ork. N. Y. 

MeBRIDE. .JOHN F Utica. N. Y. 

McBRIEN, .lAMES D 2K3 West Fifty-tirst Street, New York. N. Y. 

M( COR.MICK. .lAMES F Leicester, N. Y. 

M< INTYRE. .lOSEPH B (51(5 \\est 1 I l-th Street. New Y'ork. N. Y. 

McKNKiHT. (iEORGE C 5(51 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

.McLERNON. HUGH N 21.55 Grand Avenue, New Y'ork, N.Y'. 

Mc MAHON. .lOHN (57 North Prince Street, Flushing, L. I. 

MiMANUS, GEORGE D 271. Ninth Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

MEGALIOS, DEMETRIOS .Miners Square. Yonkers. N. Y. 

MELLODY, WALTER B Address unknown. 

.METZGER, .lULIUS CHARLES :wr> Sixth Street. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

MOONEY'. ROBERT E 93 F^dinhurnh Street. Roeliester. N. Y. 

MORGAN, ARTHUR ,1 5K) (l.^issou Avenue. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

MORSE, DONALD E Address Unknown. 

MOXLEY, REGINALD 323 East 2(!th Street, Brooklyn. N. Y'. 

MULLIGAN, ,TOHN .1 82 I.ayton Avenue. New Brighton. N. Y. 

MULVANF:Y. ,K)HN F 9(3 Henry Street. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

MURLEY. .lOSEi'H F Address Unknown. 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 12.5 

iML'RPHY, EDWARD H 5 Mt. Pleasant Park, Rochester. N. Y. 

NORCROSS, THEODORE W 372 St. John's Place. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

NOR.MILE. JOHN J 32 Suffolk Street. Cambridge. Mass. 

OESEN. GUXWAED M 511 West 186th Street, New York. N. Y. 

OPPENHEIM, JL'EIUS 725 Riverside Drive, New York. N. Y. 

OREARDON, DANIEE G 85(3 Greene Avenue, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

O'REILLY. PHILIP 519 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

OUCHTERLONEY. JAMES D Cherokee Avenue, Hollis. L. I. 

PARENT, ED\\'ARD B 280 South Gartichl Street, East Rochester. N. Y. 

PAYNE, JAY Utica, N. Y. 

PEIRCE. CHARLES E Pleasant Avenue, Roosevelt. L. I. 

PEIRCE. ROBERT E 76 Jackson Street, Hempstead, L. I. 

PIERCE. GEORGE H 2101 Mermaid Avenue. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

PRESTON, ALERED (i Address Unknown. 

PRIOR, THO.MAS 328 East U)9th Street. New York, N. Y. 

PROCTOR, HOWARD W 35 Strong Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

RAND. HAROLD E 426 State Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

RANSBURY, EARL S 27 Paris Street, New Hartford, N. Y. 

RAYNOR, WILLIAM I 336 Front Street, Hempstead. L. I. 

REA, CHARLES W 2322 Andrews Avenue. New York. N. Y. 

REILLY, EDWARD J Ul West Sith Street, New York, N. Y. 

RENNER, .MARTIN 388-A Monroe Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

RETERSDORF, HOWARD P New Hartford. N. Y. 

RHODES, WILLIAM A 15Ist Street .ind Riverside Drive, New York, N. Y. 

ROBINSON, WILLIAM A 157 1 Ea.st Uth Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

ROGERS, AMOS 228 Lansing Street. Utica, N. Y. 

REINERS. ANTON D 1052 East 1.2nd Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

RILEY. .JOSEPH T Address Unknown. 

ROSE. L. STUART 312 West 72nd Street, New York, N. Y. 

ROSENBLUM, ISIDORE 259 West 1 12th Street, New York. N. Y. 

ROSS, GEDNE Y B 83 West 1 28th Street, New York. N. Y. 

ROWAN. JOSEPH D 103 Berkeley PLace. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

ROWE. JOHN J 833 Post Avenue. New Brighton, S. I., N. Y. 

SACKETT. ROBERT S 90 North Second Street. Hudson, N. Y. 

SCHAFER, .JACOB ,1.. .Address of parents, 11 Merritt Place. New Hartford. N. Y. 

SCHLEGEL, FREDERICK G 271.5 Atlantic Avenue. Brooklyn. N. Y. 

SCHMITT. ALFRED D 53 Avon Avenue. Newark, N. J. 

SCHULD, .JOSEPH C 135 Westervelt Avenue, Toin|)kinsville, S. I.. N. Y. 

SCHROTH. JOHN F Address Unknown. 

SCOTT. FRANK C Address Unknown. 

SEELHOFER, ERNST Address Unknown. 

SEERY, WILLIAM F 252 Kings Highway, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

SELBY. PAUL D c/o Western Land Co., Odebolt, Iowa. 

SELIG, VICTOR E 100 West 118th Street, New York. N. Y. 

SELMER. EDWARD Address Unknown. 

SHAW. CHARLES M.. ,Jr Address Unknown. 

SHEERIN, JOSEPH I 203 Underhill Avenue. Brooklvn, N. Y. 

SIME. ROBERT S 350 Left'erts Avenue. Brooklyn, N. Y. 



12(. THE COMPANY HISTORY 

SlN(iKR, MAX Address Unknown. 

SKOL'G, t'HARLKS K Troy Road, Albany, N. Y. 

SMITH, ,IA('K K 5!»rj (iriswold Avtiiiif, t'leveland, Ohio. 

S.MITH, OLIVER C Address Unknown 

SNYDKR, CJKORCiK H -.'TO Ryerson .Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 

SOPKR, ROHKRT R 4319 Rieliin,)Md Terraee, Staten Island, N. Y. 

SPENCER, ,I()HN H 1731 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

SPENCER. ROBERT ti 577 Howard Street, Roeliester, N. Y. 

S(H'IRES, LAWRENCE r>l West 37tli Street, New York, N. Y. 

STEINHERGER, SI.MON 112 East 1 Kitii Street, New York, N. Y. 

STAUDEN.MAYER. (iEORCJE ,L F., 

Address of parents. 7 l(i Hlandina Street, Utiea, N. \. 

STEPHENSON. HARRY ,1 -> I S Hroadway, Carmen, N. ,1. 

STEPHENSON, WILI.IA.M P 14.9 Williamson Avenue, Lyons Farms, N. .L 

STONE, HAROLD H Address Lnknown. 

SULLIV^AN, .lAMES ,1 i) Huckinf-liam Road, Brooklyu. N. Y. 

SULLIVAN, .JOHN .1 Brooklyn, N, Y. 

SULLIVAN, .JOSEPH .1 18 Marlowe Avenue. Elmliurst, L. I. 

Sl'LZER, CilSTAVE 355 Columhia Street. St.iten Island, N. Y. 

SUPANSCHITZ, ALXiUST A H'ii I'oxall Street, Everjireen. N. Y. 

SWAN, CLINTON C K)7 .Madis,.,, Street. 15rooklyn, N. Y. 

SZCZECINSKL CASI.MIR LUnWrCK Vddress Unknown 

TERRY, EDWARD F I(i7i» Madison Street, Queens, N. Y. 

TIEFEL, ,IOHN S •_']() Lind.n Street, Rochester, N. Y. 

TILLSON, .MARK I) 3(! Thayer Street, Rochester. N. Y. 

TITCO.MB, (JEORCiE P i;i().S Caton Avenue, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

TYLER, WALTER .( 811 Beverly Road, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

VAN DEUSEN, STARR N.w Hartford, N. Y. 

VAN DEVENTER, ,)()HN First Avenue, Atlantic Hifihlands. N. .1. 

VON DER 1.EITH, HARRY lilt Ber-en Street, Bnmklyn, N. Y. 

WALKER, HENRY E r,2 ( amlnidur Place, Bro,>klyu, N. Y. 

WAI.DRON, .JAMES .M Bn.oklVn, N. V. 

WARD. ERNEST R Address Unknown. 

WEED. I' RANK W. K.. 

.\il(lress of parents. ]7(i N. Smith Street, Poni;hkeepsie, N. Y. 

WII.DEV. WILLI.VM H Vddress Lnknown. 

WELLFRRITTER, .lERO.ME W (ioi W,st Avenue. I'tica. N. V. 

WELLINGER, FREDERICK t 1183 Lexin-ton Str.ct, Richmond Hill, I.. I. 

WHITAKER, PERCIWM k;;) T, nth Stn.t, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

WORK. MTLLIA.M W Brooklyn. N. Y. 

WV.NN, Lieutenant Vddrcss lnknown. 

VAEDE, LOUIS Address Unknown. 

YEO.MAN, EARL W l-_-'5 On-m Street. Utica. N. V. 

YORK, FRANK SCOTT. .Ik 233 East I7(ith Str. ct. New York. N. Y. 

YOLNC;, REGINALD S Vddress Unknown. 



OUR OWN BOOK REVIEW 

"What a Young Man Should Know," by (hi rente Kldert. I'^nio.. ))rofu.sely ilhis- 
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Like Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and "('■ulliver's Travels," the author uses the simple 
direct sjieecli of the proli-tariat in bringing home his arguments. The arguments, by the 
way, are the only things he l)rings home. F.vei-y .Senator and t'ongressman should read 
this book. Other works by the same author: "The Misuse of Politics," "Mike Leonard, 
or The Mystery of the Crossed Fingers." 

"How I Won My Discharge," by ,lose))li '1'. Riley. ,S\o., illustrated. William 
Beineman, London, 1918. .^1.80. 

Theodore Hoosevclt's Biogra])hy could scar<-ely be more straightforward. His style is 
faultless and the general a])]iearanee is quite the thing, 'i'he author adds charm to his 
book by a frontispiece containin.i;- a ()ortrait of himself being bona' in triumi)h on the 
shoulders of bis fellows. 

"The Upright Life," by \'ictor L. Sl-Vm^. 12mo. Christian League Publisliing Co., 
1920. $2.2.5. 

Copies of this great work are limited, and orders must be placed inuuediately. In the 
book, which contains over two liuiulrcd ]ihotographs of himself in different stages of 
development, the author makes (|uite clear the only true and upright life. Other works 
by the same author; "The \alue of C<irrugated Iron," "Mow I Won .My Way to Fame 
with a Sjiade." 

"Songs and Parodies," by Bugler Brown, (irentano's. 1920. -tS.OO net. 

The .Yc!£' i'lirk Chiiiits says: "This book is destined to make a great name for itself. 
It is jiositively guaranteed to cure the 'blues' and (juicken the si)irit." The book cimtains 
o\er three hundred uuistcrpieces in the autlicu''s own handwriting. 

"The Quintessence of Short-Changing, " by Gedney B. Ross. L'niversitv 
Heights Lithograjihing Co., 1920. $.3.29. .Subject to reduction. 
The author is confessedly a past master at the art he practices. Only a man brooding 
deejily u])on these shortcomings of mankind could write such a book. 

"Hygiene and Digestion," by Harry VonderLieth. Scrivener's. 1920. .$3.00. 

Seld has such a delicate sub.ject been so daintily handled as by this well-known epi- 
curean, (^ne might almost infer that the author is entirely absorbed in his subject, so 
accurate is bis ;iccotmt. 

"The Powers of Speech," by Henry K. Walker. Barker's, 12mo., 1920. $1..5() 
prepaid. 

This, the most recent work of the author of "What to Say and How to Say It," ])rescnts 
new ]i<)ssil)ilities to the student of foreign languages. 

127 



]JS THE COMPANY HISTORY 

"The Buckshee Top Sergeant," liy James I). OnclitcrlDiify, co-autlidr uith I'rank 
R. Hiilchison. \r\v ^ork Pnss I'uhlisliing Corp.. 1920. 3 vdliinu's. .^(i.OO. 
AltliiiDL'li llii' tiim- U pi-i'tty hitf for .siici-i-ssfiil war stories, we believe tliat tliis exeellent 
|inHlii(tioii deserves lionorable iiientioii as eoiitaining the essence of greatness. The CO- 
authors vie with each other in demonstrating their views on the sul)ject jiresented. We 
do not know whirh ti> aec-e|it. 

"Souvenirs of Ancient Babylonia and Egypt," by Donald 15. Caniplnll. 

Tile antlior is a noted eiirio-eolieetor, and lias exhiliited his eolleetion many times liefore 
the crowned lieads of Knro|)e. His description of the scenes amid wliich, at };reat per- 
sonal risk, he olitained his present nnrivalled collection of cnrios is a romance in itself. 
He is also the author of '".Skulls .ind Their L'ses." 

"The Stage as a Profession." Iiy Cliarlcs ]?. Fislier. I)oul)l(iii,ulit-\V,ii;f Co.. 1920. 
Clotli. it^2.()(). 

The traffcdy of many a sim|)le eonntry lass may he laid at the door of the evident truths 
expounded in Mr. Fisher"s theories. The f;lare of the footlights can almost lie felt Ijy 
the reader throujih the magic spell of the author's convincing arguTuents. 

"An Artist's Reverie," hy .lolm ,1. Kenny. Holtoii, .Muffin Co., 1920. .t2..")0. 

Few artists ha\e had the distinction of being selected to engrave the menus for Christmas 
dinners in France, but such is .Mr. Kenny's proud boast. .Mr. Kenny is not only an artist, 
hut a Jioet, and his prose is inters])ersed with really ex<'cllent )ioetry, such as could only 
have been jiossible during times of extensive leisure. 

"The Full Bread Basket," hy David T. (iately. :V C. .Sheath cS; Co.. 1920. .+ 1..00. 
All rights reserved. 

The author is most competent to demonstrate the evils of the |iresent system of the food 
supjily and its illegal control. His description of the excellent dinner of Louis XI\', on 
jiage 1.S3, in particular, seems to savor of the utmost in luxury and variety. 

"Step by Step," by Anibmse H. Furlonf;-. A|i|)hni.ins. I!»2(). ^3.1)0. 

This is the story of a young and ambitions b.ink messenger, wherein he succeeded by dint 
of perse\'erance and care in details. A\'e suspect that the .author is writing his auto- 
biograjihy. 

"The Silver Bugle," by .St.irr \'aii Deusen. Sinn \' Co., 1920. 3 volumes. .tl..")0. 
This book contains not only the principal bngle-ealls of the various nations, but adds a 
treatise cju phonetics, and the jn-oper method of pursing the lips so necess.iry to the 
.success of the truly great liuglcr. 

"The Missing Helmet," by L.twrence .1. l.iedy. .St;iten Isj.ind Publication Co.. 
1919. $2.00. 

In this m.tster]>ieee the author s]iares no effort to make the reader acquainted with all 
the details of his great mystery -story. The style is a bit heavy, however, and .i repeti 
tion tends to s])oil an otherwise excellent novel. The author's other great work is by far 
su[icrior: "\in<' months on the Border, ;nid Still a High Private." 

"Finance and the Banking Business," by .Vdolph H. IJ.ulenli.iusen. with eomiiila- 
tioii of tal)les by ,Iolin \'an Deventer. D.S.C.. P.D.(^. B.-irker's, 1920. ."}<.5.00 net. 
The author has devoted consideralile space and effort to m.ike his story com|irehensive 
to even the most ignorant. He conuuences with the rudiments of tJie banking and 
money-lending business, exjilaining very clearly the causes which led up to his following 
this busim-ss as a ]n'ofession. It should prove a N.iluable addition to everv librarv. 

"My Success in Life," by Casimir I.. .Szczeeinski, D.B.. A. L. Dirt Co. 1920. .-fs.'f.OO. 
The author's first claim to fame was in his excellent interpretation and para|ihrasiim of 
the Infantry Drill Regulations. In this prescTit work he goes further and excels himself. 
even to the most incre<lMl(>us. 

"Travelogues Through Paris," liy .lohn MnU.iney. H.W, The 'rwcntietli Centurv 
Co. 1920. 12mo., |)rofnsely illustr.ited. 

To the- writer of .such a book as this nothing ap]iears too insignificant to esc.ipe notice 
He has a very dee]i a'sthetic sense of biauty arul its true re|)rcsentations. 'I'lie book will 
iriake an admirable study, and should lie (ui every jiarlor t.ible, if onlv for its illustra- 
tioi\s Other books by tlie same author: ".Mustard Gas and Its Properties, I'he Ser- 
vant (iirl Problem." 



THE COMPANY HISTORY l_'i» 

"Prisons I Have Known," bv John W. .Malicr. Sinti: Sinir Puhlic'.itioii Co. li)20. 
.^3.00. 

The author sptviks witli the saiu'tion of sueh well-kiioHri prison authorities as F. S. Vori-c, 
Jr., J. B. Melntyre and C. O. Downes. His authenticity of detail <'annot he questioned. 
His hook is pleasinf; and instruetive. The ])rison scenes rehited are such as wouki stir 
the very de|>ths of emotion. 

"Morning Exercises," by Harold \\. Hoiistieki. A])i)kman s. 1917. .^2.00. 

The author, who is well known a.s the author of the thrilling- serial, "The Delinquents 
t'lul)," which had a most successful run in "The tamp Wadsworth Road Review," has 
given us a hint of still greater promise in this work. It is more than a text-hook on 
hygiene, and the fact that its author teaches us hy his example is still luore a claim 
to fame. 

"What to Do When Challenged," by Hugh N. McLernon. 12nio.. translated 
from the original Greek. Henry Bolt & Co. 1920. $2.00. 

()ne of the most absorbing of the after-war publi<ations. A veritable treasure of ])rac- 
tical information and brim-full of interesting anecdotes from the author's personal 
experience. 

"Piano-Playing Simplified," by Austin V. Leaiiy. K. I'. .Mutton & Co. 1920. ^LOO. 
Mr. Leahy uses the Knobhy [liano exclusively. That fact s])eaks for itself. His work is 
so simple that a child could learn by following his explicit instr\ictions. 

"Two Weeks in Oblivion," by l.csli.' Kane Scrivener's. 1920. $3.00. 

The writing of this hook is somewhat abstruse, and the reader is a],t to wonder what it 
IS all about. However, the author hrings home his points one bv one at the close of the 
liook, which IS in four volumes. (Ither works by the same author: "The Sleepinu- Sick- 
ness," "Fogs I Have Known." ' if' 

"Gambling and Its Evils," by David H. Hughes. L'tica Press Bureau. 1920. $1.00. 
Beginning witli the lottery system, the author points .mt the evils of every form of 
gamhbng now m use. Thr,>ugh,Mit his hook his stvle denotes a thorough knowledoe of 
his subject. '" 

"Selling Short on Biscuits," by V. .M. C. A. Yerkes. Sinn & Co. 1920. $1.00. 

A notable tra\esty on Iuuomii Hfe. with a slightly satirical turn. 

"The Chemical Properties of Oleomargarine," bv Fred A. .lolmson The Mac- 
Nolan Co. 1920. Cloth. $2.00. 

The author is a well-known authority on his subject, and has made an exliausti\e studv 
of oleomargarine. His experiences with this interesting [jroduct are minutely related. 
"The Missouri Mule," by Howard W. Proctor. E. P. Mutton & Co. 1920. $3.00. 
.\n admirable treatise on animal psychology. It enables one to understand the human 
race, even after the first reading. We advise a second perusal. 

"Phrenology and the Art of Dodging," by Phili,, (;. Corwin. Barkers l<)-'0 

$1.00. 

The author is a w.-ll-known advocate of all forms of skull exercise. He claims in his 
great work that the thicker a mans skull is the better he can keel) from danger Other 
works by the same author: "Why I Smoke," "A Skin One Loves to Touch." 

"Beards and Their Uses." by Clustave A. Sulzer. Danderine Publisbin.,- Co l9->0 

$1.00. 

Tracing the habits of beards from the period of the 1-aU thic Age, the author iiresents 

his undebatable conclu.sion that a heard is more healthful, cleaner and hetter-lookin°- than 
the sii th-slia\i-M countenance. "^ 

"The Mucilage Industry,"by William Down. A. L. Dirt & Co l9-'0 In leather 
$3.00. 
The author incntions the origin of the manufacture of mucilage, and brings its consump- 

Mvster?-""T; l^ '"---"t/l") ■ ^■*'"'" *''"**'"-^ ''>' ""■ -^"'"^ '""'"'- "The Oatme ,1 
.Mvsterv, llie .Seconds Paradise. 

"Whistling as a Recreation." by L. Stuart Rose, American Book i'ublishing Co 
1920. In morocco, $3.25; In tune; $1.00. 

Seldom have the minor arts been .so clearly demonstrated as in this hook The uitlior 
is not higoted in any way, hut urges his readers to practice their own favorite form of 
vvhistlmg. However, he gives a remarkable jirefercn.'e to his own method, which is-hut 
that would spoil his story. Kveiy I'hihl should read this book. 



180 



THE COMPANY HISTORY 



"A Pleased Customer," >y K;il|)li K. Ltlnnaiin. Sinn & Co. 1920. .$'2.00 postpaid. 
Coinpri.scs ii ooipr.sf in coinpctitivc salesniaiishii), in twenty .short lessons, "'riie value of 
a pleased ciistoiiier," s.iys Mr. lyehuiann, "cannot he over-emphasized." 

"Clearing the Mask," liy George F. Alper.s. Grentano's. Hvo.. .$2.00. 

The unl)iased o])inions of an enihient .-nilhority on niatlieinaties. Should he stn<iied 
minutely hy all candidati's for admission into courses <in cattle-hreedinjr at any of inir 
universities. .\ valuahle asset to the lilir.iries of the most fastidious. 

"The Camel Outwitted," by Will Hoatrifjlit. r^'atim-i l'iil)lishin<r Co. 1920. .$1.20. 
))tT carton. 

'l"he autlior is undouhtedly a humanitarian of tite highest typ<.. This ania/.ing' mystery 
story of tile Cami'l is only outr.inked hy Old Kinfr Brady and Dick .Merriwell. " "Taln't 
ri};ht," says .Mr. Hiiatrif;ht, "that the (.'aiiiel should In- treated so unfairly." 

"What's the Odds?"liy Kdward H. Lynch. Bronx Printinn (dri)oration. 1920. 
.$10.00 to $.5.00. 

The stor\* of a younji .-uhiadurer in a land of constant crime, where he has tu use all his 
wils to outwit his enemies \lsii author ot "Three to Two No Five." 

"The Ninety and Nine," hy 'I'homas Prior. .Scrivener's. 1920. Clotli, $2.00 
post)).'ii<l. 

This famous melodrama recalls tlic days of the detective story craze. The only clue 
which Sherlock .lones, his hero, is ahle to find is the finf;er-]irint left on a man's chest, 
and the fa<"t that tin- \ ictint tiled couiihinj:'. It ahsorhs in e\'cr\ line. e\en thoujri) written 
in dialect 




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Miss Piioei)e Snow writcN: '"I liaxe never Iteen witiiout it." 

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